Sins of Our Hearts
by DarkenedFantasy
Summary: Sora thought he would have time to recover after defeating Sephiroth. But then the King showed up, once more as the harbinger of bad news: the Emperor of Palamecia had broken the World Order. Will the heroes return from this situation intact, or be lost?
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, or any of the locations, characters, and etcetera therein. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners.

.-.-.-.

Prologue

How had things ever managed to get so horrifically off balance?

There were supposed to be three keybearers, always. Now one was in a permanent sleep. Another had fallen to darkness. The masters were dead, missing, powerless. Unable to do anything to avert the coming horror.

Now, there was only one keybearer left. The lone woman.

Destiny, it seemed, always proclaimed she would be the one to endure when all else was falling apart. The balance of light and darkness had to be maintained, and at this juncture, darkness far outweighed the light.

She didn't want to, but she knew she had to fight.

Her Keyblade appeared in her hand, and in the cavernous hall, she charged for her fallen comrade.

.-.-.-.

This is a sequel to the fanfic Paths of Our Fathers. It is recommended you read it to understand what's going on in this story, though it is not entirely necessary, as many flashbacks will be included in the narrative.


	2. One Moment's Rest In Peace

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over the following content. All characters, locations, etcetera are the property of the respective copyright owners.

.-.-.-.

Chapter One- One Moment's Rest in Peace

Though King Mickey had rather wanted to get going as soon as he informed Sora and the others of the situation on Palamecia, he was ground to a halt by the realization that one of the heroic trio he had sent off to help save the worlds from Sephiroth was missing.

"Sora, where's Riku?" Mickey wondered. "I thought he'd be here with you."

Sora averted his eyes, and Mickey finally took notice of the scar now marring the left half of Sora's face- a jagged cut which could only have been made by a Keyblade. He remembered his warning to the trio about not listening to Sephiroth's words, and thought of how startlingly similar Riku and Sephiroth looked, and it finally clicked.

"Oh." the diminutive king muttered, more to himself than anyone else. "Sephiroth got to Riku, didn't he?"

Kairi nodded gravely, tears threatening to drip from her eyes. "Yeah. Riku turned against us, burned down the islands… killed everyone… All because of Sephiroth. And then, he had a momentary change of heart, and- Sephiroth just…"

The King looked down at the ground. "I… I see. So, it's just you and Sora left, Kairi?"

"Yeah… it's just us…" Sora answered. "Your Majesty, listen, I wanna help you out, but… could we wait on leaving for just a bit? I wanna say goodbye…"

Mickey nodded, seeing all the sorrowful faces of not only the two Keyblade Masters, but also the rest of the group from Radiant Garden. "Of course. Take all the time you need. I'll be waiting when you're ready to go."

Sora nodded, and he walked over to the place where Riku's body had lain. There was still a crimson puddle on the floor, where Riku had been bleeding from the wounds Sephiroth gave him before his body had been used to complete Reunion, like some sick marionette. Just beyond the pool of crimson, there lay, barely discernable against the metallic floor, a single silver feather. One last remnant of Riku's presence.

Sora took the lone feather into his hands, and felt Kairi kneel down next to him on his left. He couldn't see her, but he could hear her breathing next to him, hear her gasp when she saw what Sora had in his hands. Tears began flowing freely from Sora's remaining eye as he clutched the feather close to his heart, and the sounds of his weeping echoed in the air. Kairi rubbed Sora's back soothingly, but Sora muttered, "I know you're trying to help, Kairi, but can I just be left alone for a while?"

"Okay…" Kairi muttered, standing up, and brushing tears from her own eyes. She hadn't known Riku as long as Sora had, but the loss of one of her closest friends still hurt.

Her eyes finally dry, she started looking around the altar of the World That Never Was, the top level which had been the site of Sephiroth's ascension to godhood, as well as Riku's death. She wondered how the others were taking the events that had occurred. Aerith's head was bowed as though in remorse or prayer, mere feet away from Vincent, who just stared blankly off into the distance, his face carefully composed. The lack of reaction would seem callous from the man if Kairi hadn't known how subdued he could be. Cid, Tifa, and Yuffie were speaking quietly with each other, and Tifa and Yuffie both appeared to be crying somewhat. Cloud's face was conspicuously missing from the crowd, which she found somewhat odd. Then again, Cloud had never cared all that much for Riku.

Seeing no sign of Sora's father, Kairi walked over towards the edge of the altar, leaned against the railing, and sighed, looking up at the eerily broken Kingdom Hearts. The image of the seraphic Sephiroth bound to the broken edges by millions of tentacles flashed before her for a moment before vanishing. What had happened here would likely come to haunt her memories for ages. She was worried about Sora, given that now he had lost pretty much everyone he had ever known and loved in the course of little over a week. True, she loved her family on the islands, and would miss everyone on the islands who were dead, it was her home as much as it was his- but she wasn't originally from there. This fact, for whatever reason, helped soften the impact of losing her home.

She heard muffled voices talking, and inclined her head towards the source. Merely ten feet away from her, Cloud and King Mickey were locked in a serious discussion. She turned to face them fully, and listened carefully to what they were saying.

"-knew something like this would happen, didn't you?" the King asked, giving Cloud a pointed look.

"I was worried from day one about something like this…" Cloud admitted. "Gods, what have I _done_? I never should've gotten them involved in this…"

"You needed their help." Mickey reassured him. "That's why you contacted me, isn't it?"

"No…" the blond man moaned. "No, I didn't need their help… I could've handled this myself. I could've beaten Sephiroth's minions, they could've all been killed, I could've fought Sephiroth first thing instead of waiting, and then none of this would've happened. Riku needn't have been corrupted, or redeemed, or killed, the islands would still be there, and Sora would still have a family."

"He has you." the King stated calmly. "He has you, and from what I gather, without Sora's help, you would've lost this last fight. Without him, Vincent would be dead again, Quistis would be dead and you wouldn't have had the information you did, Seifer would be dead, and Squall wouldn't have gotten a chance to settle things with him. Sounds to me like Sora's help was exactly what you needed."

"I know, I know." Cloud conceded. "But… the only reason I even wanted their help in the first place was to clear the way to Sephiroth… I hate myself for being so manipulative, for using my own kid like that, but I didn't think I had another choice. All this, everything that happened, it's all my fault. I've caused my own son so much pain… I'm not fit to help anyone. Not my family. Not my friends. Nobody."

Kairi's sudden intake of breath drew two pairs of eyes to her. Cloud looked like an animal caught in the sights of a hunter, and Mickey looked troubled. Cloud stood for a moment longer, then proceeded to walk away from the altar, ignoring the protests of his allies.

The Princess of Heart couldn't believe what she had just heard. Cloud _had _just been using them from the start. Sora had been played by his own father. But what stung more than anything else was the memory of Riku warning them of this possibility, and realizing far too late that he had been _right_. Riku was _right_- and they had doubted him.

She made a motion as if to inform Sora, and felt a strong pressure on her shoulder. She turned back, and found Vincent looking down at her, shaking his head. "You can't tell him about this… It would completely destroy him."

Kairi nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, I know… But… it just doesn't feel right to keep something like this a secret."

Vincent sighed, moving away from her. "It's your decision. I can't do much of anything to ensure your silence, but just remember this: there are some things better left unsaid."

A frustrated grumble escaped Kairi's throat. She hated keeping secrets from Sora, absolutely despised it. But she knew, given how clearly torn up he was over Riku's death, if she broke that kind of news this very instant, he wouldn't be able to take it.

"I won't tell him now," she muttered, loud enough for Vincent alone to hear her, "but he is going to be informed about this eventually."

A tiny sigh escaped the gunman's lips, but he made no further protests. The auburn-haired princess looked over towards Sora, and saw that he was finally back up on his feet. She walked over to comfort him, stepping slowly around Sephiroth's corpse, which still lay bleeding on the ground. It was unnerving seeing _him_ there when Riku's body had vanished. Also, given the penchant this particular villain had for coming back from the grave, she half-expected his arm to shoot out from its prone position and grab her ankle. When no such attack came, she heaved a sigh of relief, and walked swiftly to Sora's side. A pair of metallic footsteps behind her told her Vincent had followed her.

King Mickey walked over, and asked, "So, are ya ready to go?"

Sora nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be. But… with all due respect… this sounds like a political thing, this… violation of the World Order. Isn't that… shouldn't you be the one handling that sort of thing?"

The King was silent for a moment, but then the golden variant of the Kingdom Key appeared in his hand before him. "Protecting the world order is the duty of a Keyblade Bearer, not just a King. This is as much your problem as it is mine. I'm sorry it's such a bad time, but this is something we hafta deal with right now."

Sora opened his mouth as if to argue back, thought better of it, and nodded. "Yeah. Let's go… to Palamecia…"

.-.-.-.

And that's it for this chapter! Join us next time as we approach the confrontation with the Emperor of Palamecia, and discover that there is much, much more to this conflict than initially supposed. As always, reviews are appreciated. Flames are not.


	3. The Empire and the Resistance

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of the following content. All characters, locations, and etcetera of the Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy franchises and the copyrights therein belong to their respective copyright owners. That will be all, lawyers.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Two- The Empire and the Resistance

Sora had to fight down the urge to shudder as he stepped into the Castle Palamecia. He'd been in many castles before with structure equally as intimidating, if not more so, but somehow the thought of being in this particular place gave him the shivers. Perhaps it was because he felt out of his element, not having been drawn here by the Heartless or some other threat, but by a mere political matter. Perhaps it was because he could not summon the Keyblade within the palace walls, or risk having guards pile on top of him.

Speaking of the guards, they were leading the group of four through the labyrinthine halls of the palace, keeping their eyes closely trained on the four visitors from another world. Mickey was at the front of the group, drawn up and as serious and mad as Sora had ever seen him. Perhaps the only time he'd seen that sort of determined look was when it appeared Goofy had been killed on Radiant Garden during the Heartless siege. Sora and Kairi followed closely behind the rodent king, with Vincent bringing up the rear of the group. The raven-haired gunman's crimson eyes were darting around the room, scanning all possible places where an ambush group could possibly be hiding. The four's footsteps were muffled against the crimson carpet which lay over jade flooring. Now they were in the throne room, after what seemed like hours of walking, and at the end of the long hallway, there was a stone throne, in which a distinctive figure lounged. Sora knew from the moment he saw him that this was the man whom they were about to confront- the Emperor of Palamecia.

The Emperor was not the sort of person they expected to see upon the throne, apparently ruling most of the world on which they landed. Sora had pictured some uptight, drawn in, reserved old guy like the Emperor on Mulan's world, but this Emperor was a young man, who was slouching almost lazily into the arm rest of his throne. He was clad in armor or brightest gold, with a cape of light purple hanging from his shoulders. His skin was pale, and his lips an odd shade of violet- perhaps some form of ceremonial makeup? The jewel or whatever-it-was in the middle of the man's head seemed to go with that thoughtline. His blond hair was lifted in a strange spiky hairdo even wilder than Sora's own, and a few beads seemed to be interspersed in the golden locks. His right hand served as a support for his head, while his left held a golden, very threatening-looking staff, and a smug smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Seeing the four approaching him, the Palamecian Emperor stood, and did what appeared to be a respectful bow towards the others. "Welcome, travelers from distant worlds. I am Mateus, Emperor of Palamecia. Who are you?"

Mickey did a short bow as well, a clear indicator for those behind him to do so as well. Sora looked confused for a moment, then went along with the motion with the others. As Mickey straightened up, he said, "I'm Mickey. King of Disney Town and all worlds related to it, and enforcer of the World Order."

"An honor, Your Majesty." Emperor Mateus stated calmly, his eyes turning towards the others in the group. "And the rest of you?"

Sora straightened up, and summoned the Kingdom Key in his hands. The guards made to attack him, but with a gesture of Mateus's hand, they stood down. "My name is Sora. I'm the Keyblade Master."

The Emperor's eyes lit up with curiosity. "_Fascinating_. I'd heard legends of this blade, but to imagine that they were _true_… What of you, girl? Who are you?"

Hearing the derogatory term, Kairi drew herself up indignantly, and replied in the most haughty but still respectful voice she could manage, "I'm Kairi. I'm a Keyblade wielder, just like Sora, and also Princess of Radiant Garden."

She felt a shudder run through her being as Mateus took her hand in his own, and pressed a soft kiss to it. Though his words seemed genuine, he reeked of darkness. "It is an honor, milady."

Vincent saw the Emperor's eyes fall upon him last, and knew he was expecting an introduction of equally high regard. The whole time Mateus had been playing at the respectful royal, and Vincent knew he had to show somehow he wasn't buying the act. "My name is Vincent Valentine. I'm the bodyguard for this group, and the one who keeps them from falling for _obvious tricks_."

Emperor Mateus's gaze darkened at the gunman's answer, and he forced the smile on his face slightly wider. "Well, now that the introductions are over, gentlemen- milady- perhaps you'd like to explain the reason for this rather sudden visit."

So much as both Sora and Vincent longed to interrupt with a 'cut the crap' line, it was King Mickey that spoke first. "Emperor Mateus, a few days ago, we spotted several of your Imperial ships in the airspace above the neighboring Blue Planet, several of them landing. This is in direct violation of the World Order, as even worlds in close quarters are not supposed to have any contact with each other. Wanna explain that for us?"

"Oh, those ships?" Mateus asked, boredom dripping in his voice as he sat back down in his throne. "Cargo vessels. We've been engaged in trade with the Blue Planet, as well as our sister world, the World of Balance, since our kingdoms have formed an alliance about a month ago."

"If they were cargo vessels, then why were they armed to the teeth?" Mickey challenged. "And whaddya mean, 'alliance'?"

Mateus sighed. "Surely you know how dangerous it is to travel in the Lanes Between. Ships of those mindless Heartless constantly crop up and open fire on any ships in the area. The cargo ships need that sort of armament to defend themselves against attack. And as to our alliance, I would've thought a sovereign such as yourself would be pleased with such an effort. Three worlds working together in peace, providing commerce, military aid against outside invaders, and general prosperity to one another seems to me to be a desirable outcome. Please, I know it must look suspicious, but I assure you, our intentions are entirely peaceful. And, by the way, Mickey, King of Disney Town, isn't this issue slightly beyond your jurisdiction? Surely this is a matter that can be settled amongst our own worlds. Besides, it was not only my ships involved in the scenario you witnessed. There were Gestahlian ships, as well as ships from the Red Wings of Baron in the forces as well. If it's this violation you are so concerned about, please, take this matter to them as well."

"Believe me, I will." King Mickey shot back, turning resolutely away from the Emperor, and leading Sora and the others back towards the palace entrance.

Mateus watched them leave, and heard his Dark Knight approaching the throne from a back passageway.

"Should I send the guards after them, milord?" he asked.

The Emperor considered for a moment. "Hmm… No. Not unless they give us reason to. Let them go. But keep a close eye on them until they leave this world. The Keyblade Master's presence will serve as a nuisance, but I am especially intrigued by their fourth companion, their so-called 'bodyguard'… He could prove highly useful in subduing any rebellion that remains…"

.-.-.-.

As soon as the group was out of the palace, Kairi let herself shiver. Everything about that place was completely off, especially Emperor Mateus.

"Did anyone else get a really bad feeling about this Emperor guy?" Sora asked rather loudly.

"Quiet down, Sora!" Vincent hissed, seeing a few eyes drawn to their group. "The Empire has ears everywhere. But yes. Yes, I did. I'm not sure if you caught it, Your Majesty, but the entire time he was speaking to us, he was mocking us. All that bowing and 'it's an honor' was just a load of bullshit."

"Vincent!" Kairi interjected, offended.

"I'm just calling it as I see it." the gunman defended hastily.

"So much as I object to the language, Vincent's right. Mateus doesn't intend on pulling his troops out or doing anything to resolve this issue." Mickey noted.

"So what do we do to enforce the law?" Kairi wondered. "I mean, we can't fight the Emperor, especially if he's in an alliance and all three parties are to blame. We'd need an army!"

"Yeah. And his subjects seem to be very loyal to him, so good luck getting the help we need." Sora added, a scowl crossing his face. "Oh well. There doesn't seem to be that much we can do here, so maybe we oughtta just cut our losses and go back home."

"Sora!" the Princess of Heart admonished. "You're the Keyblade Master. This is part of your duty! You can't just walk away from this!"

Sora shrugged. "I never gave a damn about the whole World Order thing anyway. Several of my friends on other worlds know I'm from an outside one. My duty is stopping Heartless, defeating powerful evils, that sort of thing. Not policing the worlds and making sure they don't step out of line with the World Order. This is a King's job, not mine."

The rest of the group was stunned into silence by Sora's words. Not just his words, but the bitingly cynical tone in which he said them. They all heard the accusation towards Mickey in his voice. This was not the same Sora whom they had fought Sephiroth alongside, not the same hero who once saved the worlds from certain destruction.

The Gummi Ship had been landed just outside the mountain range which contained the Palamecian Empire, and the group of four was now approaching the still craft. However, just as the ship came within running distance, Vincent turned back towards the mountain range, gun drawn, having stopped in his tracks.

"What's wrong, Vincent?" Kairi asked warily, drawing her Keyblade just to be sure.

"They're coming for us." Vincent stated coldly. "They want us gone here and now, before we can do anything to stop the Empire."

"From what? Conquering everything?" Sora asked angrily, drawing Oblivion to his hands.

"I don't know. But Mateus sending a group after us to ambush us is really making him look more suspicious." Mickey confirmed, holding Star Seeker in his outstretched hand.

Mere seconds later, a group of the Emperor's demonic footsoldiers came riding as with the fire of hell on their tails towards the group of four, surrounding them from all sides. Mickey stared determinedly up at the soldiers which towered over him upon their chocobos of varying shades.

"Is there some sort of a problem?" Mickey asked, glaring up at the apparent ringleader.

"The Great Emperor Mateus has heard of your group speaking seditiously of the Empire in a public place, and in accordance with the laws of the Palamecian Empire, you all have been declared to be outlaws, and as such, are being placed under arrest until such time as the Emperor sees fit to release you." the leader sneered down at the group.

"Arrested just for saying something against the Empire, how shocking." Vincent deadpanned, holding Cerberus out threateningly. "See, there's just one problem with that."

"We don't do too well inside stone walls." Kairi finished, Keyblade held out in front of her.

"And we can't deal with this whole issue if we're under arrest, now can we?" Sora asked sardonically, Oblivion pointed directly in the face of one of the guards.

The ringleader drew out his lance, and pushed it to where the point of it almost pierced where Sora's left eye had been before Riku got to it on The World That Never Was. "I take it from your tone you're not willing to come quietly. In that case, I guess we'll just have to bring you in by _force_."

"You're welcome to try." Vincent replied, a smirk pulling at the edges of his mouth.

There was a moment's pause, and the leader pulled back his lance before driving it forward as if to pierce Sora's skull through the left eye. Sora sensed the motion, and cast Reflega at the last second, throwing a transparent beehive shield around the group which not only deflected the attempted attack, but staggered the leader to such a degree that he fell off of his chocobo. Free of its overlord, the chocobo ran away from the mountains towards somewhere, anywhere that wasn't Imperial territory.

"Kairi! Get to the Gummi!" Sora ordered as the beehive barrier faded out of existance. They would only have a momentary opening before the onslaught began, and Kairi was the closest one to the ship. Once she got inside, she could start the takeoff process and have Mickey jump in while it was still low. Vincent could fly himself and Sora to the ship once he went Chaos mode. If the demon felt like cooperating, anyway.

"Right!" Kairi nodded, making a break for the ship while the rest of the guards were still disoriented. She was about ten feet from the ship when two of the guards from the batallion surrounding them cut her off, and she tightened her grip on her Keyblade. Her sword skills were still comparatively shoddy, but she had grown enough to fight mooks like these off. She dodged beneath the first blow aimed at her, and sliced into the attacking guard's leg, leaving him incapacitated on the ground. She felt the light well up inside her, and released it in the form of a little white ball which homed in on the other guard trying to sneak up on her, and knocked him off his feet. Kairi whipped around, auburn hair falling in her face, and laid a heavy slash wound into the fallen guard's side. The wound was survivable, but not pleasant. She looked around for any other coming guards, and when she saw none immediately advancing for her, she stepped into the Gummi Ship, and started the process of getting all the systems online, which would take about three minutes. They just had to survive the fight for three minutes, then they could get going to the World of Balance to have a little talk with Emperor Gestahl. She saw a guard charging for the ship, and panicked internally for a moment before she saw the guard slide off the chocobo, bleeding from three small holes in his chest. She made eye contact with Vincent for a brief moment, and saw that his eyes were looking far more yellow than they were crimson. If she didn't hurry, this fight would get very needlessly bloody.

Outside the ship, King Mickey was running around beneath the sightline of the guards. The one disadvantage their height gave them was an inability to really notice something low to the ground.

"Where did that little rodent go?" one of the guards asked the other.

"I don't know… search the grass. He's probably hiding there." the other replied simply, pulling back the reigns on his chocobo.

Any conversation between the two guards was cut off in the next second, as both their heads fell to the grass, and the aforementioned 'rodent king' somersaulted to the ground before them as the decapitated corpses fell off of their steeds. He looked over on the battlefield, and saw Sora swinging Oblivion viciously upward as one of the chocobo-riding guards charged him, gutting both chocobo and rider, and leaving both bleeding on the ground. Darkness was beginning to form an aura around him, and King Mickey felt the pit of his stomach drop as he realized what that could mean in the moments to come.

Sora heard the dismounted rider from earlier charging at him from his left side, and turned around to do a charge of his own. For a moment, it seemed as though he hardly moved, and then the next second, he was on the opposite side of the guard, with the guard's body split laterally, falling in half behind him. He was really starting to get annoyed with this. First he got dragged out to handle something that wasn't even his area to begin with, and then he got attacked by the Emperor's guards for doing basically nothing. He was in no mood to deal with this, and as his mood grew blacker, he could see his skin tainting with the shadows. Ordinarily, he would fight this, the transformation into Antiform, but at this point, he was too ticked off to care. He let the darkness swallow him, and his now claw like fingers twitched in anticipation of the fight that was to come. A guard studied him quizzically for a moment, and guided by instinct, Antiform lunged.

Vincent's gauntleted hand was clutched over his heart, which felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. His clawed fingers were held rigid over the rapidly beating muscle, even as the rest of him was in constant, inhuman motion. Dodge, lunge, fire, leap back, duck, shoot, jump, dodge, fire, and all the while he was on autopilot, his brain far more focused on the battle going on inside his mind. There was crimson everywhere, darkness and blood staining the ground in almost equal shares, and at the sight of the fluid, Vincent felt his heart lurch beneath his fingers as Chaos writhed for control within him.

_Let me out let me out I want to be in this bloodbath you pathetic mortal let me OUT AND LET ME FEED_ Chaos rambled, a constant stream of demonic fury and lust within Vincent's mind.

_No!_ Vincent shot back, barely managing to duck below the lance of a guard. _No, if I let you have control I'll never have it back. I refuse to become a burden to them. I don't want to lose control, I don't want this-_

_That's a lie and you KNOW it you LIKE this battle bloodshed bloodlust you want this I NEED THIS LET ME OUT_

Through the roars of fury only he could hear, Vincent faintly perceived Kairi's voice calling out to him. Without even looking at the guards pursuing him, Vincent fled for the open Gummi Ship door, leapt in, and sat down, buckling in as the ship sped for the sky. They had only flown for about twenty seconds when alarms began twittering on all sides.

"What's going on?" Mickey asked, panic starting to worm into his voice.

Vincent blanched as his eyes fell on a gage that should be full, but was now close to empty. "The gas lines… They sabotaged the gas lines while we were gone."

"Which means we're gonna crash, right?" Sora wondered, sarcasm etched into every word.

"No, no, no, I'm _sure_ we can make it out of the atmosphere and not get stranded or die a fiery death on this amount of fuel. There's a chance we might explode, but no, other than that, I think we're fine." Vincent answered, rolling his eyes.

"Stop with the bickering, you guys, and help me get this thing landed _before_ we blow up!" Kairi shouted, causing silence to fall within the ship. "Sora, you take the landing gear. Vincent, you man the weapons in case anyone decides to follow us into the skies. It looks like there's a city over there where we can land and ask for fuel."

"If it's not already swarming with Imperials looking for us…" Vincent muttered under his breath.

"Even if it is, we have to try!" Kairi countered. "Would you rather us risk imprisonment down there, or blow up if we stay up here?"

"I wanna _live_, thanks." Sora added, putting down the landing gear and making preparations for a crash landing. "Okay, strap yourselves in. This might get a little rough."

Kairi took the warning, and buckled herself in tightly as the ship descended far too rapidly through the clouds, and collided roughly with the ground. Unlike the last time the ship had crashed, no one was flung from the craft. The ship itself seemed to have avoided being completely totalled. Once the ship stopped moving, all the occupants undid their seatbelts, and stepped outside to examine the damage to the craft. The damage was mostly cosmetic, a few dents and dings in the armor surrounding the ship, but none of the internal systems seemed to have been affected. One of the Blizzaga guns was destroyed beyond repair, but other than that, no major systems were harmed. They'd just need some body shop work done, and some fuel line repairs and refueling, but other than that, the ship was fine.

"I think we managed to avoid destroying it completely…" Kairi sighed, relieved. "Thank goodness. If we had to go through another repairing fiasco like what happened at Derris Kharlan…"

Sora's body went rigid at the mention of the place, and Kairi's expression moved to an apologetic frown. "Sorry. I forgot that's still a touchy subject for you…"

"Well _that_ landing coulda been smoother." Mickey muttered, dusting himself off. "At any rate, we gotta try and head into town and see if anyone will- or even _can_ help us out."

"Don't think we'll have to go much of anywhere." Vincent stated, indicating in the direction of the town, where a figure with silver hair was approaching them from the distance. "Looks like somebody heard the crash and is coming to us."

"An Imperial?" Sora wondered, hand held out as if to draw the Keyblade.

"Not from what I can see- but the man looks like he's armed to the teeth. Keep your weapon at the ready, but don't do anything to attack unless he strikes first." Vincent replied, his hand held just above Cerberus's holster.

Shortly after the words left his mouth, a bolt of energy went flying through the air, whizzing past Kairi's head before crashing into- and through- Vincent's chest, dropping him to the ground like a ton of bricks.

"Vincent!" Kairi cried out, running over to where the gunman had fallen. When the blow hit, it looked like it had been fatal, but upon closer examination, she could see he was still alive and breathing- not even blemished from the bolt. So why in the world did he collapse like that?

Another bolt flew through the air, and ran through Sora's throat from behind, causing him to collapse right on top of Vincent.

Before Kairi could react to this new attack, she heard Mickey's voice cry out behind her, "Watch out!"

Two more bolts came flying through the air. Mickey jumped in front of the Princess of Heart, blocking the first with his Keyblade, but the second was just a little too high for the block he had, and pierced him through his head, dropping him down to the ground like a rag doll.

Kairi leapt up, drawing the Keyblade as she did so, and began scanning the area around her. She heard a slight 'whoosh'ing noise, and felt a swift pain in her stomach as the next energy bolt flew right through her. Odd, it didn't really hurt that much. She wasn't even bleeding! She just felt so… very… sleepy…

.-.-.-.

Vincent groaned as his brain crept closer to consciousness, bringing him back in touch with a dull pain in his chest. The first coherent thought he could string together was _If this is another Imperial ambush, so help me, there will be blood._

He forced his crimson eyes open, and once his vision cleared, found himself in a throne room somewhat different from the Emperor's. The color scheme was mostly deep reds and golds, and upon the throne, there sat a beautiful blonde princess dressed in a white gown. Next to her stood a tanned young man with long silver hair tied back into a ponytail and spiking at the front, loaded down with all sorts of imaginable weapons. Bow and arrow, axe, daggers, swords, a staff… any weapon it was possible to purchase in a weapons store, he had on him somewhere.

Vincent heard groans next to him, and looked to his side to see Sora, Kairi, and Mickey stirring next to him. He moved to see if they were allright, and found his efforts halted by a length of strong, corded rope bound not only around his waist, but the waists of all his comrades, keeping him pressed far too close for comfort against Kairi and Sora.

"Wha-? Where are we?" Kairi asked as she came to herself.

"This is the Castle Altair." the princess on the throne answered. "I apologize for having bound you, but we had to be certain you weren't Imperial spies."

"Not likely." Vincent answered venomously. "Given that we got ambushed by Mateus's troops and our ship got sabotaged while we talked with him."

"Why were you holding negotiations with Emperor Mateus of Palamecia?" Hilda asked imperiously. "You were not seeking an alliance with him as well, were you?"

"No!" Mickey interjected, his voice echoing in the room. "In fact, we were coming to bust this alliance of his up. It's a violation of the World Order, and we can't just let him start overpowering other worlds."

"Why did you attack us?" Sora asked, turning his head to look at the man beside Hilda's throne.

The man sighed. "Forgive me. Your craft crashed in our territory, and I was told to assume any intruders were Imperials, thus I had no choice but to attack you. My Straightarrows- arrows which transform into bolts of energy- were coated with a sleeping powder. They are inherently non-lethal, more a nuisance than anything else, but they would sedate any possible troublemakers."

"However, it appears we were mistaken. You four are not Imperials, and in fact seem to be working against him. To have held your own against actual Palamecian Guards long enough to escape to your craft and flee here… I'm impressed. How would you like to help us in taking the Empire down?"

"Help you? What do you mean?" Kairi asked, bewildered.

"I am Princess Hilda of Altair, leader of the resistance known as the Wild Rose. For years, Mateus of Palamecia has crushed our world in his iron grip, using his legions summoned from the depths of hell to oppress all who stand in his way. Since he gained knowledge of the two sister worlds in this area, he has joined with Emperor Gestahl of the World of Balance to launch a two-pronged invasion force against the Blue Planet, a peaceful neutral party still governed by the monarchy. He will not stop until all worlds are under his domain… you four seem to be quite capable of fighting, and I beseech you for your aid."

"Of course we'd love to help." Kairi answered eagerly. "I can't just stand by and watch worlds like yours suffer!"

"I agree with Kairi. Besides, this proves what I was thinking before- Mateus is trying for a takeover bid. As a Keyblade Master, I can't just let the World Order be defied like this!" Mickey chimed in.

Vincent rolled his eyes. "As loath as I am to trust people who attacked us on sight, if they can help us get off of this world and onto the World of Balance, I really don't care what service they need us for."

Sora grumbled. "Whatever works for Kairi is fine for me. But remember this- I didn't want to start playing politics, all right? I'm not in this for your revolution. I'm just here to stop the worlds from getting even more screwed up than they've gotten in the last few years. Sounds like Mateus could be trouble if he gets out of this tiny area."

"Princess, are you sure about this? Two of them are little more than children." the man next to her protested.

"Children who managed to fight off Imperial Guards, from Palamecia, no less." Hilda interrupted. "Don't complain about their age, Firion, because quite frankly, you aren't that much older than they are."

Firion, as the man was called, went intensely red in the cheeks, and stood down.

The Princess sighed, and continued on, "Very well then. As of this moment, all four of you are members of the Wild Rose. Remember those words- they can tell you who is a friend or foe, but be careful not to speak them in the presence of any Imperial Guards."

"That's great and all," Sora cut in, "but first things first, untie us. And second, we were trying to get to the World of Balance before our ship crashed. Could ya spring for some repair work and help us find some allies on that world so we can get more info on Gestahl or whoever the emperor over _there_ is?"

Princess Hilda nodded. "Very well. Firion, untie them. I'll have our mechanics work on fixing your craft. It shouldn't take too long to repair the damage- perhaps a day or less. Feel welcome to rest in our quarters for the evening, and you may set out for the World of Balance tomorrow. There, you will seek out the Returners. You will know you have met one of them when they greet you with the phrase 'The Empire's heels tread everywhere', to which you absolutely must reply 'but the wild rose still blooms', else they will not recognize you as fellow members of a unified resistance. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." the four travellers replied in unison, Vincent rubbing his right arm as the blood sang through it after having been bound for an undetermined time. He stood, followed by the teens and the mouse king, and turned away from the throne.

"One thing further before Firion leads you to your quarters to rest." Princess Hilda began, halting Vincent in his walk, "I understand that you are not from this world. Take great care in your dealings with any of the Empires. Abilities such as yours would be great assets to them."

And without even waiting to hear a proper introduction, she shooed Firion and the group of four out of the throne room, towards the quarters where they would stay until morning.

.-.-.-.

And that's it for this chapter. Join us next time as the group travels with Firion in tow to the World of Balance to see precisely what this Gestahl character is up to. And who on earth is that court jester that they keep running into once landed?


	4. New Info and New Enemies

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over the Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy franchises. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright holders.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Three- New Info and New Enemies

The trip to the World of Balance was not particularly eventful. The four who were travelling on the mission were able to avoid drawing imperial fire. King Mickey had decided to return to his home after the meeting with Hilda, claiming that he needed to keep his closest subjects informed of the situation so they too could help the resistance. He claimed he would return as soon as he possibly could. Firion had decided to come along with Vincent, Sora, and Kairi to meet the contact in the city which was the center of the Gestahlian Empire- Vector. They landed just outside of the city, and Firion guided them through the crowded streets.

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, Firion," Sora began, his voice caught up in the din of the city crowds, "but doesn't it seem like the _worst_ possible place for a rebel base to be located would be in the middle of the empire's main city?"

"Don't be stupid." Firion shot back, sidestepping a man hawking half-rotted produce. "Of course the Returners aren't headquartered _here_. We're just meeting a contact for this particular chapter. Hilda figured this would be the best place to get the most current information about what Gestahl's up to."

"Shut it, both of you." Vincent hissed, crimson eyes darting around for any potential Imperial mooks who could have overheard them speaking. "You know the streets have ears."

"Vincent's right." Kairi agreed. "Let's get off this topic until we meet our contact, okay?"

"Well, we don't really have to be quiet. We're here." Firion stated, gesturing in front of him.

The group of four stood outside of a particularly irreputable-looking bar, from which staggered a group of no less than four highly intoxicated Gestahlian troops.

"… this is where we're supposed to meet our contact?" Vincent deadpanned.

"It might look like a death trap, but believe me, this seedy joint has been our best help." Firion commented, pushing the doors open and letting the others in in front of him.

The silver-haired weaponsmaster led the other three to the bar itself. The bartender was wiping some grime off of a beer mug when he saw the group of four approaching him.

"Another ragtag buncha misfits, eh?" he asked, setting the mug down. "Been gettin' a ton of those types in here lately. Just last week, I had a couple of people from Narshe come in because of the imperials. Man, seems like the Empire's heels tread everywhere these days."

"But the wild rose still blooms." Vincent replied quietly.

The bartender gave the four a meaningful look, and leaned in close to them before whispering, "My shift ends in about fifteen minutes. You four split up. Once I leave, I want each of you to leave, one at a time, in intervals of fiteen minutes apiece. I'll be waiting in the back alley where the workers take their smoke breaks. Blend in while I'm gone, and for gods' sakes, don't do or say anything stupid. Got it?"

Firion nodded before turning to the others. "Okay. Time to split up. I'm leaving first after this bartender leaves. Who wants to go after me?"

"I'll go." Vincent volunteered. "I'm the one, aside from you, who sticks out the most."

"Okay. Then I'll go after you, leaving Sora for last." Kairi stated.

Sora nodded. "That's fine by me."

And with that, the group of four split up across the dingy, smoke filled bar. Kairi moved to a corner where a group of girls around her age were hanging out, getting drunk and acting silly. Firion moved against the wall, leaning back like he was too cool for even these dark surroundings. Vincent, however, decided not to move, and stayed at the bar, taking a seat. It had been a while since he'd had a drink- and with all that had happened in the past few months, he really needed one.

"Finally decided to order something, eh?" the bartender who was their contact asked, leaning in. "So, what'll it be?"

"Just get me a scotch on the rocks. The hardest damn thing you've got." Vincent muttered, looking down at the bar counter, which was made with some cheap fake marbling.

Moments later, the bartender returned with the familiar light yellow concoction in a small shotglass. "Here ya go, pal. This should kill whatever's eatin' ya."

_I wish_. Vincent scoffed mentally. _Thing is… as bad as I feel about everything that's happened, I'm not the one I'm worried about…_

Almost as soon as the thought entered his head, he felt someone sit down in the seat next to his, and heard an all-too-familiar voice say, "Just give me a glass of straight rum."

The gunman looked, disbelieving, at the spiky-haired teen sitting next to him. Even if he hadn't recognized his voice, that hair and the scar now running down the left side of his face made it obvious.

_Sora you __**idiot**__._ Vincent cursed. _We were told to split up!_

Realizing the eye contact would make him more suspicious, Vincent quickly turned his focus back to his drink. Barely inclining his head towards the boy, he asked, "Aren't you a little young to be drinking?"

"Aren't you a little _old_ to be my _father_?" Sora shot back, gulping down a portion of his rum.

Vincent shook his head, taking in his scotch in one gulp. "Listen, I know you're dealing with a lot of problems right now, but trust me, this isn't the way to go about dealing with them."

"And what the hell would _you_ know about my problems?" Sora retorted. "Even if you were _there_, that doesn't mean you understand _anything _about what I'm dealing with."

"I understand a lot more than you think I do, believe me." Vincent shot back, signalling the bartender for another drink. A different face than their contact greeted him with another round. The contact must have already left. He really needed to keep a closer eye on the clock.

"Understanding issues aside, I do have something to ask you." the spiky haired teen muttered, staring intently at the contents of his glass as he swirled them around.

Vincent groaned mentally. What did Sora think he was doing, acting like they knew each other really well in a setting where that would look suspicious? Aloud, he replied, "And what would that be?"

Sora hesitated for a moment, looked away, then finally decided to speak. "You ever get the feeling like there's this dark presence inside you just writhing to get out?"

Raven eyebrows arched in response. "I think I can relate… why do you ask?"

Sora hesitated again. "It's just- I- well, ever since those incidents happened, I've been feeling this deep dark _thing_ inside of me struggling to get out. More than it ever had before. It used to be just this presence, growling something incoherently in the back of my mind…"

Vincent felt a chill running down his spine. Seeing Antiform's savagery in the earlier fight had almost caused _him_ to lose control of his _own_ inner demon. If Sora was losing his grip as well… "And now?"

Sora broke the 'no eye contact rule' as his cerulean orbs, widened in fear, locked onto Vincent's ruby irises. His voice came out barely above a whisper as he answered, "I can hear it talking to me. It tells me to… _do_ things. Really, really cruel and dark things, and… I'm scared. I'm really, really scared of what's gonna happen if I lose control like I did earlier…"

Vincent took a cursory glance around the bar. Firion was long gone, and Kairi was giving Vincent a wide-eyed look as though he'd missed some cue. Lovely. He'd missed his time to walk out.

"Well, it's been good talking to you, kid, but I have to get going." the gunman stated, loudly enough to be heard, but not loudly enough to be suspicious. He left a small pile of the coins Firion had given them on the bar, and walked out the door.

Sora watched in bewilderment as the older man exited the bar, having completely ignored his attempts to begin another sentence to ask him for help. After a moment, he turned back to the bar, and glugged down a large portion of his glass of rum. Next time he saw Jack, he'd have to thank him for getting him adjusted to drinking- otherwise he'd be acting silly. Though- oddly enough- even back then, when he got drunk, he wasn't all that silly. In fact, he was more subdued than usual.

And now, no matter how much he contemplated that glass of rum, no matter how many times he felt the sweet burn of alcohol run down his throat, he couldn't drag his focus off of the one thing he was trying to avoid: seeing those images of Riku, battered and broken from their own fight trying to battle his father, Riku dead and bleeding on the ground, Riku rising into the air like a marionette in his father's puppet show- and Riku, illuminated by the light of the flames from the islands, smirking down at Sora while he bleed out on the sand.

He could still feel the heat from the fire against his face. The left side of his face twinged in phantom pain, and his left hand flew to the scar. Way to the Dawn was coming up towards him, way too close for comfort, he had to move he had to dodge but he couldn't twist out of the way and oh gods was that his eyeball hanging from the end of the blade and flying off into the night-

He hadn't even realized he was shaking until he heard the rattle of the glass against the counter. Instinctively, he drew the glass to his lips for a long gulp to steady his nerves. It was almost empty now, but at least the shaking had stopped.

_It's all my fault_. he thought. There was nothing, in his mind, more true than that simple placement of blame. _It's all my damn fault. If only I'd been there, supporting him, when he found out about his father, instead of being weirded out… If only we'd gone after him on Derris Kharlan… No, if only I had just, for a few moments, thought about how my actions would hurt Riku, then he wouldn't be-_

He choked on the last word. Suddenly, there was a tiny ray of light amidst the fog of his memories. _Wait a minute. Sephiroth was dead before, wasn't he? And he made a comeback, because of the JENOVA cell things, right? Riku, being Sephiroth's son, had those too, didn't he? Then… maybe… maybe he's not dead after all! Yeah, yeah, that works! Maybe he'll be coming back someday! Besides which, the body vanished and never returned so we couldn't really give him a burial so maybe just maybe that means he's coming back, and-_

Sora's logical mind- what part of it that wasn't muddled by the rum, anyway- jerked to a halt at this thought. It made so much sense, it was perfect, and yet he knew it was a dangerous thoughtline to pursue to its logical conclusion. He couldn't let himself fall into this tiny ray of hope, because he knew if he did, he was setting himself up for more heartache than he could bear. He forced himself to focus instead on the task at hand, and his eyes flew to the clock. Forty-five minutes had passed since the contact had left. Kairi would be just walking out the door.

His good eye drifted down to his glass of rum, and he swirled it around in the glass for a moment to amuse himself before pausing to look at his reflection. He hadn't really gotten a chance to get a good luck at himself with all the insanity that had been occurring over the past few weeks. For the first time, he saw, really _saw_ the scar which he felt marring the left side of his face, now oddly mirrored to the right. His first thought was of Auron, the scarred warrior from the Underworld who helped him in his travels to defeat the Nobodies, and how much that scar had marred his eye. Sora's scar was comprable to Auron's- only the wound was far more jagged and irregular. Whether by sword or magic, Auron's scar, while jagged, had been comparatively clean. This Keyblade-born wound bore a twisted arc upwards from the middle of the teen's cheek to just below the browline, zigging and zagging haphazardly to the left and right as though each of the angel wing's feathers from the end of Way to the Dawn had moved to cut him individually.

Yet, shocking as the scar was, what made Sora more anxious was the deadened look in his right eye. There was none of that childish, mischeivous gleam, none of that shine of innocence that had once been there. That one sapphire eye may as well have belonged to a dead man for all the life it showed. Sora's own expression caught him even more off guard, as he found himself wearing the sullen expression so commonly seen upon Cloud's face, but never before on his. He tried to force the corners of his mouth into some pathetic charade of the smile he once wore constantly, but it just wouldn't stick. One look at his reflection in the rum glass, and he'd realize how stupid and pathetic he looked even for trying to be happy again.

He dragged his eye back to the clock, trying to force himself to focus on the mission, and realized it was now his time to leave. He quaffed the last bit of rum in the glass, and placed a few coins on the counter as payment. Suddenly, he was struck with the rather childish worry that maybe Kairi had spotted him drinking at the bar, and found himself wondering what she would think of him after doing something like this…

He shook his head. So long as he kept his strides fairly in line, she wouldn't ever know. Huh. Come to think of it, he probably needed to mind his diction when he was talking to her too, given he was uncertain exactly how much, if it all, his words had been slurred when speaking with Vincent.

He stepped forward hesitantly, and walked out the door towards the back alley where his friends and the rebellion's contact were waiting for him. When he rounded the corner, he found all four of them standing there, waiting wth varying degrees of impatience for him.

"Hey guys. Sorry I was a little late." Sora stated, making absolutely sure to keep his diction as crisp as was possible, just to make sure there was no slurring going on.

"No, no, you got out here on time." Kairi replied. "Any reason why you're talking weird?"

Sora was dumbstruck. He thought he'd been more careful than that. Vincent shot him a glare, and said, "You know, exaggeratedly clear diction doesn't really do that much to hide the fact you've been drinking, Sora."

The contact rubbed his temples agitatedly as Firion and Kairi's eyes grew wide.

_Vincent you traitor…_ Sora thought bitterly, seeing the shock in Kairi's eyes turn to anger.

"_What_?" Kairi hissed, her voice surprsingly low, considering her considerable ire. "You were _drinking _in there? You're not old enough to drink, not by a long shot! And besides which, where did you even pick up a habit like that? You know drinking isn't going to solve anything, and what would your _mother_-"

She cut herself off mid-sentence with a gasp as Sora turned his head as if she had slapped him. In her anger, she'd almost let herself forget what had happened on the islands. Sora didn't have to give a damn about what his mother thought- there was no mother to give a damn if he misbehaved anymore.

"Oh gods…" Kairi muttered. "Oh Sora, I'm- I'm so, so sorry, I wasn't thinking and I-"

"That's right. You weren't." Sora cut her off bitterly.

The contact grumbled. "Let's just get moving. The Vector base isn't too far from here. Just down a few blocks and around a corner."

The group of four followed the contact in silence, Firion now eyeing the other three with vast confusion. They seemed to be very close, and yet something awful in the recent past seemed to be driving them apart.

_I know I have no business asking…_ Firion thought to himself, _but I really need to figure out what in the worlds is going on with those three, and why they're all so jumpy about certain subjects…_

Vincent was lost in his own thoughtline. _Sora knows he's losing control of Antiform… that can't bode well… if he were to lose it again mid-mission, the results could be disastrous… for all parties involved. It's clear all that has transpired recently has left Sora with more scars than just the one which blinded his left eye… I just hope he can pull himself together to save the worlds, because without him, what other saviors do we have?_

The group was completely silent as they walked for the Vector Rebellion Base, but finally, after several moments, they arrived at a plain old items shop, where the man working behind the counter gestured for them to head for a back room. There was a panel near the top of the door which was slid backwards to examine the group coming in.

"Who comes for the cleric's aid?" a voice asked, muffled by the wooden door.

"One whose people's wounds have been left to fester." Firion answered confidently, earning confused looks from everyone except the contact. He felt the looks like three different laser sights, and turned back to the group. "Sorry. There was another contact phrase. We couldn't tell you because we still weren't sure if you were completely committed to aiding us. It's for security reasons."

Vincent nodded. "Smart thinking. If an Imperial managed to find this place, and reach the backroom, they wouldn't be able to gain entrance. Plus, there are all sorts of items that can posion, paralyze, silence, and maim lying around. Not just the cures for them, but the items to cause those conditions."

Firion nodded, and led the group inside. Their contact from the bar moved towards the center of the room, and said, "All right. I'm the leader of the Vector chapter of the Returners. The main chapter is located in a different area. You were directed here because we have the most current information on Gestahl's movements. Right now, it seems he has a manhunt on for a woman by the name of Terra Branford. Locke told us he'd found her near Narshe, but we have yet to receive any other contact. Gestahl is very interested in her. She must have some sort of incredible power. Right now, that's all the info we have."

Vincent looked less than impressed. "That's it? That's all the information you've gathered? You're in the Empire's main city, and all the info you have is something that could be gathered from the Wanted posters around town?"

Kairi gave Vincent a warning glare, before addressing the room at large. "Please, excuse him. He means no disrespect to your abilities or your organization. Really."

Vincent completely ignored her. "What else have you managed to accomplish? Have you been trying to cut off supply line access? Send people inside the Empire itself to get information from the inside?"

"Well, the other Returners have a contact or two inside the Empire's walls, and they're trying to cut off supply lines, but-" the contact began.

"But nothing." Vincent interrupted, his eyes narrowing. "You're right in the heart of Imperial territory. You could really strike these bastards where it hurts. And what have you done with this opportunity? Absolutely nothing, except being a waste of time and space. I'm willing to put forth the effort to help this revolution, but not if you aren't willing to put forth the effort to fight back. Call yourself a resistance front. All I see are a bunch of whining kids playing around with their secret meetings and hideouts."

Firion shot Vincent a searing glare. "For your information, we've been repelling Imperials from many surrounding cities, and putting forth our best efforts to free cities under Imperial control. Our resources are not infinite, but we do our best to stay out of Imperial hands."

"So your only achievement is barely keeping your little resistance alive. Pathetic. Just pathetic." the gunman snorted. Sora grabbed Vincent's shoulder as if to get him to shut up, but Vincent shrugged it off. "I don't care so much what you're trying to do as the absolutely idiotic way you're going about doing it. If you want to be taken seriously by the Empire, you're going to have to disrupt their lives a lot more than you have been. Right now, even with all the secrecy and paranoia, I bet the Empires don't even consider your little resistance anything more than a few whining peasants."

"If that's what you think, then I think we ought to part ways here." Firion retorted.

"What a coincidence. So do I." Vincent shot back, turning towards the door. "Come on, Sora. Kairi. We have better things we can be doing to resolve this issue."

Kairi gave Firion an apologetic look as if to excuse Vincent's behavior before following both Vincent and Sora out from the shop into the streets of Vector. The Gummi Ship had landed just on the outskirts of the city- no more than fifteen minutes worth of walking- if they could remember which way they came in from.

"All right, now the problem is, how do we navigate our way out of here?" Vincent mused, looking around for some directional sign as to where they needed to go.

"We walked pretty much straight into town until we reached the bar." Sora commented. "We could find our way back to there- wait- I think I see the sign for it. Let's head over that way!"

The spiky-haired teen was pointing towards a particularly dingy looking building about three blocks away, which, once Vincent looked closer, was identified as the bar into which they had come earlier. The trio set off walking towards it at a brisk pace, acting like a group of friends ready to spend an afternoon drunk to throw off suspicion. Once they reached the bar, they looked in all possible directions for their path out of town- and Vincent finally spotted the lone straight shot to the outskirts to the north of their current location.

They had taken about three steps when Sora accidentally bumped into somebody on the street.

"Watch we're you're going!" the man shouted. "I hate hate HATE when people don't pay attention!"

Sora didn't apologize, but looked curiously at the man he had just bumped into. He definitely stood out, even in the varied city crowd, dressed in what could only be described as a jester's uniform of garish reds, greens, whites, and yellows. The make-up on his face was nothing short of clownish, and the smile seemed half-frozen on his face. His blond hair was tied in a ponytail out of his blue eyes, which were now studying the trio very, very closely.

"Eh? Haven't I seen you around here before?" he asked.

Kairi shook her head hastily. "No, no. I think he just has one of those faces. He gets that a lo-"

The clown shook his head. "No, nonono, you ALL look familiar, actually!"

Vincent's eyes zeroed in to just behind the man's shoulders, where a wanted poster with crude depictions of himself, Sora, and Kairi was stuck to the wall. _This is bad… This is very, very bad…_

The man then turned to look behind him at the wanted poster, which gave Vincent the opportunity to pull Sora and Kairi along behind him as he started making a break for it. The clown turned around, and, realizing they were gone, yelled, "Guards! Guards! Get those three misfits!"

"Yes sir, General Kefka!" the few fairly intoxicated guards from inside the bar answered, stumbling and staggering out and running after the three fugitives.

Kefka hit his head with the heel of his palm. "Morons, morons, _everywhere_. Why is it so hard to find good help these days? Heeheeheehee. No matter. They shouldn't have any problems getting-"

"They got away." the leader of the squadron that had been sent after the fugitives barely two minutes ago reported, clearly out of breath.

"They… _what?_" Kefka shouted. "They got away. They got _away?_"

"W-we thought they were wanted alive, sir, and they were too fast for us…" the leader added, a look of fear now beginning to form on his face.

"There's a _reason_ why _op_pose rhymes with _dis_pose, you dolt!" Kefka raged. "If you're going after them, _kill_ them!"

And the leader of the footsoldiers spontaneously combusted- with a little help from Kefka's magic.

"Whichever one of you two idiots wants to do it is in charge now." Kefka sighed, gesturing towards the remaining two guards. "I've had enough of dealing with you imbeciles for today."

.-.-.-.

"Way to go, Vincent." Kairi congratulated. "Had you not started making a break for it, those guards might have caught us."

"Hmph. Well, it got us out of the situation." Vincent replied, shrugging like it really didn't matter.

Sora swiveled the captain's chair for the Gummi Ship around so he could face everybody. "Well, now that Vincent's officially made us unwelcome at any rebellion matters anytime soon, I guess there's really no point in us staying here."

"That's not true!" Kairi insisted. "We still haven't been to the Blue Planet, and we need to see how things are going there!"

"What goes on on the Blue Planet is their concern only, not ours." Sora shot acidly, swiveling back around to face the controls. "We can't get involved here. This isn't our war to fight, so let's just go and leave them to it."

And before Kairi or Vincent could register a word of protest with him, Sora took the controls and sped the Gummi Ship as far away into the depths of space from the trio of worlds at war as he could.

.-.-.-.

And that's it for now. Next time, we explore a world more under Mickey's jurisdiction that has never-before been seen!


	5. Taking The Easy Way?

**Disclaimer:** I claim no ownership of the content of this fanfiction, save for its plotline. All Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Disney characters belong to their respective copyright owners.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Four- Taking the Easy Way?

Sora navigated the Gummi Ship through lightyears and lightyears of space, putting as much space between the warring trio of worlds and himself as was possible. Kairi had tried protesting his actions for the first hour or so, but soon realized her pleas fell upon deaf ears, and herself fell silent. The only noise she made was one of confusion when the Gummi Ship drew to a stop.

"Where are we?" she asked, looking to Vincent and Sora for the answer.

"No idea." Sora replied, curtly. "But this looks more like a place where we need to be on the lookout for any Heartless activity. Doesn't it, Vincent?"

The raven-haired gunman shrugged. "Perhaps. Though, this world is a good distance away from any other recognizable worlds we could have visited, if this was the route you wanted to take."

The spiky-haired teen surveyed the new world through the cockpit. It looked to be modern enough to have some of the technological advances his homeworld had, so they wouldn't stick out all that much. Besides, he had a feeling there was something dark on that world he needed to take care of.

"Let's get going. I want to see what this world looks like!" Sora finally stated, trying to force some of his old enthusiasm back into his voice.

With that, the teen took the ship down to the outskirts of town, and landed.

As soon as the three stepped outside, they felt a familiar sensation which told them their clothes were changing to fit the world. Sora's outfit changed to a simple pair of khaki pants with a white button down longsleeved shirt and a brown vest. A simple brown beret attempted to hold down and cover his insanely spiky hair. Kairi, meanwhile, felt her skirt and tank top shifting into a rather short black dress, her feet now encased in shoes with rather tall heels. Though the weather on this new world, wherever it was, was fairly temperate, she could still feel a bit of a draft, and blushed as she realized how low cut her dress was across her chest. And her blush deepened when she noticed Sora actually _looking_ at her. Vincent didn't object to this new clothing as much as the others- for it was very much like the outfit he wore while he was in the service of the Turks. He was in a crisp, black silk suit, which looked like it was quite expensive, and his shoes had changed to leather loafers which shone against the dirty street.

"Hey, Vincent." Sora began, sounding almost confrontational. "I'm just wondering. How is it that you _always_ get the really high-class and spiffy-looking outfits when our clothes change for a new world?"

Vincent shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. Maybe it's because I'm holding all our money right now?"

"Maybe..." Kairi trailed off. As much as she regretted abandoning the rebellion in their hour of need, she had to admit, she was excited to see this new world. "Well, if we're going exploring, let's get gone."

Barely had the trio taken a step out into the streets when they found themselves cut off by a procession of musicians playing music on trumpet and drums rather loudly. Despite his calm disposition, Vincent couldn't help but crack a smile at the music they were playing. He always had had a soft spot for jazz.

"Well, it looks like we've arrived in the middle of a festival- again." Kairi noted, pointing at the banners of green, gold, and purple strung around the city.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Now, if we could just figure out where we are..."

He looked up towards one of the street signs, and tried his best to decipher it. "'Roo-eh Bur-bun?'"

Vincent rolled his eyes. "I think that says 'Rue Bourbon'. Bourbon Street?"

Sora made an 'oh' sound of recognition. "Sorry. Foreign language isn't my strong suit. Anyway. Let's get moving before someone spots us just standing here."

The trio moved for the next street corner, where they found an old man sitting on a bench, reading the newspaper. They looked around in wonder and confusion for a few minutes, until the old man spoke to them. "Y'all lost?"

Sora and Kairi exchanged a glance, unsure how to respond. The old man was speaking their language, but the accent was rather thick, thus making it hard to understand what he was asking. Vincent, on the other hand, pursed his lips as he thought on how to answer. The accent sounded similar to Cid's, but still different. Maybe going for a similar dialect would get them more help than asking normally.

"A bit." Vincent answered, drawling slightly, drawing shocked stares from Sora and Kairi.

The old man laughed good-naturedly. "Y'all ain't from 'round here, are ya?"

Vincent shook his head. "Nope. We're from a good ways away. So, if it's not too much trouble, could you tell us where we are?"

"Well, now, y'all need to know where y'at? This here is Bourbon Street, in the French Quarter of N'awlins. Now, whatcha lookin' for?"

Sora's stomach chose that moment to growl, and he finally remembered it had been days and days since he had last eaten. He'd been running on adrenaline ever since- he stopped himself from finishing that thoughtline.

The old man laughed again. "Y'all sounding like y'all needing some food. There's a place down the street a little called Duke's. Waitress there, name o' Tiana, she'll fix you up with some mighty fine beignets if y'all want 'em."

"Sounds like a good idea." Kairi answered. "Thanks a lot."

The old man turned his eyes to Kairi, smiling. "Sure thing, _chere_. Y'all have a good time, now."

And with that, the trio set off down the street.

"Vincent. What the hell was that?" Sora asked, not even bothering to conceal his irritation.

"What was what?" Vincent wondered.

"That. Back there. Where you imitated that guy. How did you know how to speak?"

The raven-haired Ex-Turk shrugged. "When I was in the Turks, we had to learn several dialects. One of which was somewhat similar to the one that man was using. And Cid speaks somewhat similarly as well. So I used those as a jumping off point, and the rest was easy."

"Impressive." Kairi stated, quite awed. "You know, skills like that could've come in handy for espionage _in the rebellion_."

"Don't even try it, Princess." Vincent shot back, his voice almost a growl. "I am not going to be convinced by you continually playing the guilt card. And neither is Sora. So just drop it. We'll go back when the time comes."

"If the time comes." Sora retorted. "That war can rage on, and all three of those worlds can destroy each other for all I ca-"

"Sora, look out!" Kairi warned.

Unfortunately, her warning came too late, and Sora bumped right into a man wearing a black and purple suit with a black top hat.

"Why don't ya'll watch where you're going, instead of-" the man started to shout, turning around. Then, as soon as he saw the three behind him, his expression abruptly changed. "Ah, gentlemen. _Ma chere_. _Enchante!_ A tip of the hat from Dr. Facilier. How y'all doing?"

"Sorry I bumped in to you." Sora apologized in a tone that made it clear he was not sorry at all. However, he took the card which the man offered to him, and looked closely at it. "Hey, guys, doesn't this look neat? 'Tarot readings, potions... dreams made real'?"

"Y'all not from around here, are ya?" Dr. Facilier asked, smirking.

"You're the second person who's asked us that..." Vincent replied, this time not even bothering with the accent. Something about this tall man put him ill at ease. "And no, as our speech patterns can tell you, we're not."

"Well, I'm sure y'all got a busy day planned here in N'awlins, but maybe you could spare a few minutes to have a quick fortune reading done." Dr. Facilier suggested, gesturing towards the back alley where his shop lie.

"This sounds interesting. Let's try it." Sora suggested, for the first time feeling a surge of that old childish sense of adventure working its way back into his system. It was a long shot, but maybe, just maybe, this Facilier character would know of a way to contact Riku...

"Sora, I don't know about this..." Kairi muttered, squirming as she saw the dilapidated state of the alleyway in which this shop was located. "This doesn't look like the best place to-"

"Sure, let's trust the spooky man in a black suit who's taking us into a disreputable looking shop. What's the worst that could happen?" Vincent muttered sardonically. Ordinarily, he would absolutely refuse, but he knew at this point there would be no talking Sora out of this decision.

The trio sat down at the table to which Dr. Facilier led them, looking around uneasily at the skulls, shrunken heads, masks, and dolls which lined the room in which they now sat.

"Now, y'all don't need to be all worried. I'm doing this reading free of charge. Just calm your minds, and I can tell you what the cards say of your past, your present, and your future." Dr. Facilier soothed, making Kairi relax somewhat.

He shuffled the deck of tarot cards thoroughly, and spread three cards apiece before each of the three heroes. "Now. Whose reading should I do first?"

Sora looked at the other two, who still looked really hesitant to be there. "I'll go first."

Dr. Facilier smiled. "All right. That's fine. Now then, let's take a look at your past."

He flipped the first card, which showed a stylized image of the Keyblade wielder himself, pierced by four blades which were upside down from Sora's vantage point.

"A reversed Four of Swords. Looks like you've been suffering a great loss in the recent past. A close friend, am I right?" the voodoo practitioner queried.

Sora nodded stiffly, refusing to answer with words, lest his voice crack.

With that, Dr. Facilier turned over the next card, which showed the Keyblade master surrounded by a cage of nine reversed wands. "Reversed Nine of Wands. There's a fight you should be facin' right now, isn't there? But you don't want to do it, do you? But why? Fear, or just bein' stuck in the past? Well. Let's see what the future holds for you, Sora."

Sora now felt more than a bit creeped out. "How did you know my-?"

"Call it a lucky guess." Facilier answered, as he nonchalantly flipped over the last card.

Sora's face blanched at the sight of it. There, upon the card, was the grim reaper, holding a skeletal Sora in its clutches.

"Now, before you go having a fit, let me just tell you- the Death card doesn't mean y'all are gonna die. No, no. It just means there's big changes comin' your way. Big changes. Maybe you'll be reunited with someone you miss. Maybe you're going through a character change right now. Who knows? But one thing's for sure- keep at it, and you're sure to get what you want." Dr. Facilier eased, making Sora relax visibly.

The 'doctor' looked over between the other two as if to ask 'who's next', to which Kairi responded, "I'll go next."

Facilier smiled at the Princess of Heart, and flipped over the card for her past. Kairi looked on in awe at the card which bore a stylized semblance of herself looking wistfully into the starry night sky.

"Ah, The Star. It seems you've been quite the inspiration to your friends. Always had faith in them, even when they lost faith in themselves, didn't you?" Facilier asked.

"That's right." Kairi answered, feeling herself relax a bit more at the good omen.

The next card was overturned, and Kairi saw herself crowned, with many swords laying broken at her feet.

"The Queen of Swords usually only shows up for a widow. You're probably feeling a bit like one with the loss you recently suffered, aren't you, Kairi? But- this card also shows one who can bear her sorrow. And you're doing that right now, right?" Dr. Facilier noted, trying to wheedle some answers out of her.

"Yeah. At least, I hope so." Kairi answered, keeping her voice level.

"So, now we'll see what the future holds for you, Kairi." Facilier stated as he turned over the last of Kairi's cards, which showed her once again crowned and sitting upon a throne, but with no other items drawing attention to themselves. "Ah, the Empress. Some accomplishment, some evolution is anticipated in your future. You'll be taking on the role of a mother, a sister, or maybe even a wife fairly soon."

Kairi drew in a little gasp at the mention of the word 'wife'. She now burned with curiosity, longing to know who, precisely she was to be bound to. Was it Sora? Or was it someone else?

"And that just leaves you, Vincent." Dr. Facilier added smoothly, making Vincent jump a little in his seat at the recognition. "Why don't we take a look into your past?"

The first card was overturned, and Vincent had a feeling he knew exactly which card it was before Facilier even stated the name. Upon the card were stylized depictions of himself and Lucrecia entwined, but the image was flipped in such a way that Vincent's image was falling away from Lucrecia's, and reaching out for her.

"The Lovers, reversed. You've been separated from someone you love for a long time now, haven't you? Still haven't gotten over it yet, have you? Well, let's see what's troubling you now."

The second card was flipped over, and Vincent found himself confronted with the image of himself hanging from a tree, his legs forming a 4- only, the image was oddly flipped as though he were standing atop the limb, rather than hanging from it.

"A Reversed Hanged Man shows an unwillingness to make an effort. Or perhaps a false sacrifice. Maybe you're wonderin' if something you chose to give up, or chose to not give up, was really worth the cost."

Vincent refused to let Facilier know exactly how true those words were. Every day since he lost the Protomateria, he had wondered if staying alive and staying with Sora and Kairi was truly the right, or the best, thing to do.

"And now, let's see your future..."

Skilled fingers overturned the last card, which showed nothing but a high castle tower illuminated and enflamed by the strike of lightning above it. Vincent shuddered. Something about this future deeply disturbed him.

"Well... this ain't the best of cards to get for your future. The Lightning Struck Tower shows a sudden change, a downfall. Or, perhaps, an abandonment of the past. Maybe you're soon to move on and forget all these woes currently plaguing you. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

There was a long pause as the reading concluded before Facilier spoke again. "So, all y'all got something you want to happen. Some dream you want to come true. Sora, you wanna talk with your friend again. Kairi, you want the one you love most to love you back. And Vincent, you just want to leave the past behind, am I right? Well, what if I told you I could help y'all?"

The trio's eyes widened as Dr. Facilier stood up before them.

"All y'all gotta do- is shake my hand. That's it. And then I can make all your dreams come true." Dr. Facilier stated, offering out his hands to Sora and Kairi.

As the offer hung in the air, Vincent started gasping for breath. The air felt entirely too close. He couldn't stay in there, he had to get out, he had to leave, he had to-

"Restroom's in the back." Dr. Facilier answered, rolling his eyes, pointing towards the back of the shop.

Vincent, thankful for the out, moved to the back room, and shut the door behind him. He breathed in and out deeply a few times before finally turning his face to the mirror. But when he did, he received the surprise of a lifetime. For he was no longer looking into the face of a monster. No. His hair was short again, his eyes a duller shade of crimson, closer to brown than wine, and the deformed arm which normally hung by his side was perfect and unblemished.

"Wha-?" he asked incoherently, his hands roaming over his face. "This... this is impossible-!"

"Oh, it's quite possible." a familiar silken voice taunted.

Vincent whipped his head around to find none other than Emperor Mateus standing before him.

"You!" he shouted, reaching for Cerberus in its holster- only to find the gun completely missing.

Mateus smirked at him, sneering, "Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you. If anything, I'm here to help you."

"How did you find us here?" Vincent asked, refusing to be dissuaded.

"Dr. Facilier's little 'friends on the other side' told me where I could find you." Mateus replied. "From there, it was all too easy to come here. But enough about me. Look at you. You're human again. At least, until Dr. Facilier's little dream world wears off. Listen! The demons are gone, aren't they? No more savage presences growling in your mind. No more of the curse of eternal life. You're finally free. For this brief, shining moment, you have everything you ever wanted, don't you?"

Vincent looked down, refusing to answer. _It's true. I- I've wanted to be human again for so, so long now. But I've never had the chance- besides. This- the body of a beast- is what I deserve. This is my punishment..._

"Haven't you punished yourself enough?" Mateus asked tauntingly, startling Vincent out of his thoughts. "You've spent so many years suffering in this body which you believed to be your just punishment. Isn't it time you thought about what _you_ want, for a change, instead of the misguided wants or needs of others?"

Vincent remained silent, carefully considering the situation. One wrong move, one wrong word, and he would be sent spiralling headfirst into a trap. After a moment, he thought of a way to change the subject, steer away from this topic which awakened such selfish wants within him. "Where are Sora and Kairi?"

Mateus brushed the question off as if it were inconsequential. "Outside, fighting against a few of Facilier's shadow friends. It seems they were too stubborn to take the chances offered them. But you- you still have that chance. All I offer you is what you want- a mortal, human life. Free from the demons, free from immortality, free from it all."

"In exchange for _what_?" Vincent spat. "If you want my soul as payment, sorry, someone else beat you to that prize first. I made that mistake once. I'm not making it again."

"I don't ask for any repayment." Mateus answered, looking mock-surprised at the question. "None at all. All I offer you is the chance to make this dream of yours permanent."

He made a sweeping motion with his staff, and a chalice filled to the brim with some unknown potion fell in to his outstretched hand. He offered the chalice to Vincent, who slowly took it into his hands.

"What's the catch?" Vincent asked, looking down at the contents of the chalice as he swirled them around. It didn't look like it was poisoned...

"There is none."

Vincent gave the ruler a disbelieving glare before returning his focus to the chalice. He could be human again. He could finally live a normal life. All he had to do was take the easy out offered him, drink the potion, and it would all be done with. Though the better half of his mind was shrieking at him that this was a terrible idea, it surely had to be a trap, there was no way it would work out, he was too desperate to pay that side of mind any heed. So, before he had to chance to hesitate further, he raised the chalice to his lips-

And found the chalice knocked from his hands, colliding with the opposite wall with a loud _CLANG_. Mateus's face grew dark with anger as he vanished, and Vincent found himself face to face with a highly irate Princess of Heart.

"Are. You. _Insane_?" Kairi asked, punctuating each of her words with a violent shake, as she grabbed on to Vincent's shoulders. "Do you have any idea what that could have done to you? I thought you'd learned not to do things like this after that whole fiasco with Hades!"

Vincent wanted to respond to the princess's anger with his own ire, but found himself still in a haze. It was gone. The one chance he might have had at becoming human again was gone. The dream world was vanishing before his eyes as Kairi dragged him along behind her, and all too soon, he found himself staring once more at the clawed hands which were forever his own.

When he finally recovered from his state of semi-focus, he found himself back on the Gummi Ship, faced with Sora and Kairi both glaring at him.

"What were you _thinking_, Vincent?" Kairi asked sharply, sapphire eyes piercing right through Vincent's crimson orbs. "You know better than any of us that that was probably just a trap! So what were you thinking?"

Vincent hesitated to reply. "I- I just wanted to-"

"You just wanted to be normal again, is that it?" Sora shot back. "Well guess what, Vincent. _None_ of us are _ever_ going back to normal, _got that_? I'm stuck without a way to bring back my best friend, you're stuck as a monster, and you know what? _There's no way things are ever going back the way they were_. We can try. Oh yeah, we can _try_ and _try_ and _try_ to get things back to normal, but it's never going to happen. And it sucks. But there's no point in trying to fix things that can't be fixed."

"We would have been dead five times over if not for the powers within you that you were about to get rid of." Kairi added fiercely. "And to sacrifice something that can aid your friends for something as petty as appearances' sake is just- just plain _selfish_ and _vain_, Vincent!"

Kairi's words struck a nerve that forced Vincent down into silence. She was right. Had he agreed, he would have been thinking only of himself. Not of the others.

"So. Sora. Are you ready to get back to the worlds we were supposed to be saving?" Kairi asked, her tone making it clear she was not going to drop the subject until Sora finally agreed to return.

"No." Sora replied acidly, shutting her down completely. "We're going back to Radiant Garden. I need to see how my dad's doing. And... I guess see if we can get some reinforcements before heading back to the worlds King Mickey sent us to..."

With those final words, Sora took control of the Gummi Ship once more, and steered it off into the depths of space. He was going back to the only place left resembling home.

.-.-.-.

That's all for now, folks. Next time, we see what has become of the Radiant Garden crew since they returned from The World That Never Was, and get some more hints as to what, precisely, the Empire is planning. And why they seem so very interested in Vincent.


	6. Strong Without, Festering Within

**Disclaimer:** I claim no ownership over the characters, locations, and et cetera used in this fanfiction. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright holders.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Five- Strong Without; Festering Within

The return to Radiant Garden was a silent one, and equally as tense as the voyage when Sora and Vincent had last departed from the world. When they left, none of them knew what was going to happen to Kairi, at the time trapped in Riku's hands, or Riku himself. Now that the previous conflict had resolved, they were left with a whole new slew of worries. If Mateus and Gestahl's alliance managed to overtake the Blue Planet and expand outward towards the farthest corners of the galaxy. If Sora would be able to move on from Riku's death- or even accept it to begin with. If Kairi would be strong enough to face the swiftly coming trials. And, most pressingly on Vincent's mind, if Chaos would stay under control or go rogue. At this juncture, it seemed all outcomes spelled doom. But Kairi refused to give up hope. They could help out the resistance, they could save the worlds. They _had_ to.

With the echoes of doubt still filling their minds, the trio landed on the ravaged surface of Radiant Garden, in the square just outside Merlin's former house.

"Hello, and welcome to the Radiant- Garden... Restoration... Committee..." Yuffie greeted, trailing off as she noticed Sora's unusually somber appearance.

"Hey Yuffie." Sora greeted weakly. "Listen. I need to talk with my dad. Can you go find him?"

Yuffie looked back into the room, exchanging a worried glance with Aerith. There was a long pause, as if each woman was trying to figure out who should speak. After a long moment, Aerith reluctantly answered, "Sora, Cloud's not here."

"What?" the two teenagers of the trio asked in unison.

"Yeah. Sorry, Sora. But Cloud's been missing ever since he walked out from The World That Never Was, after... ya know..." Yuffie answered. "I've been leaving message after message after message, but he never seems to answer his phone!"

"So. He's gone." Sora noted, his voice coming out far more clipped than he had intended. "He's left. Right when _I_- when _everyone_ needs him most, he just up and leaves?"

Vincent rolled his eyes. "Typical Cloud. Just when he's needed, he vanishes. Feh. Like father like son. I shouldn't have been surprised."

Sora stopped in mid-motion, turning back slowly to face the gunman. "What. Is _that_. Supposed to mean?"

Vincent shrugged as if it were inconsequential. "Nothing. I'm just pointing out the similarities in our current circumstance to what I'm sure His Majesty and the rest of the rebellion felt when you chose to abandon them in their hour of need."

Fire flashed into sapphire eyes. "You were the one who insulted the resistance. You wanted to get out of there just as much as I did, so stop acting holier than thou!"

"_I_ merely disapproved of their methods. It was _your_ idea to speed away from the conflict altogether." Vincent retorted.

"Guys, let's not start this here..." Kairi cut in weakly, trying to put a lid on the building pressure in the room.

"Right. Right. And I'm getting called out on weaseling out of _my_ duty from the man who didn't have the _guts_ to say anything to the woman he loved." Sora sneered, causing Vincent's nostrils to flare in fury.

"_What did you say_?" Vincent growled, his voice dangerously close to the feral Chaos's normal timbre.

"Exactly what I said, _idiot_." the spiky-haired teen retorted sardonically, his eyes narrowing at the older man. "You heard me. You. Are. A coward."

"Sora, don't say anything to upset him-!" Aerith pleaded, her voice falling upon deaf ears.

Vincent's gauntleted hand shot out for Sora's throat, and Sora's arm met it with equal ferocity. Both men's irises were beginning to taint with the sick gold which bespoke of inner darkness rising to the surface.

"You know something, Sora, maybe if you hadn't been so _immature_ and so _caught up_ in your own problems and worries, Riku might still be standing here today!" the gunman snarled, going straight for the jugular. "Maybe if you'd actually _given a damn_ about him, he wouldn't have died."

The darkness was beginning to pool inwards around the younger man, and Vincent's entire body was surrounded with the telling red aura of Chaos. Each man had taken on much more animalistic posture, as if each one was ready to pounce and rip the other to shreds at a moment's notice.

"Guys, stop it!" Kairi shouted, trying to break them apart. Unfortunately, her arms were not as strong as theirs, and she found herself sprawled out on the floor. The blow hadn't really hurt- but it certainly knocked enough wind out of her to stop her from interfering if it came down to a fight.

Sora laughed, a chilling, mocking perversion of his usual childish giggle. "Well, now. Who was the one who _let_ Sephiroth be _born_ in the _first_ place? Every single bad thing that has happened to me over the course of the past few months has happened because of _you_!"

"Sora... Vincent... please..." Aerith pleaded, now holding out her staff. "I don't want to have to fight you both, so stop it. Now."

Aerith's voice broke through to a small part of Vincent's mind that wasn't clouded by rage, making him release Sora. Before anyone else could say a word to him edgewise, Vincent was out the door, and walking swiftly down the street, the rage still coursing through his veins powering his steps faster.

_How dare he?_ Vincent seethed to himself. _How dare he call me a coward? He knows what I've been through. He knows how much I've suffered for my mistakes. And then he has the gall to call me selfish and a coward?_

His heart was pounding in his ears, the furious pumping growing louder. And louder. And _louder_. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins, making every last one of them throb so much it hurt. His breathing grew ragged and his eyes began to burn. Vincent gasped as he realized what was happening to him.

_No..._ he thought, pleading with some higher power for aid. _No no no NO, not here!_

His prayers, as they always did, were met with silence and inaction. There was no one to answer him as he felt the bones of Chaos's wings burst forth from his back. No reassurance for him as the horns of the demon within began protruding through his flesh. Nothing to deliver his soul from the hell he knew was to come as the demon wrested him from the throne of his mind. He was conscious of the fall- and then nothing at all.

.-.-.-.

"I'm beginning to think this recruiting idea of yours is little more than a waste of valuable time and resources, Kefka." Emperor Mateus sneered, looking imperiously down at the jester standing before him.

"Ooooh nonononono." Kefka replied, holding his hands out in a 'let's not be hasty' gesture. "It'll be well worth it, you'll see. Trust me. Once I track down little Terra and bring her back home to papa where she belongs, everything will start going swimmingly. Besides, it's not like I'm the _only_ one trying to recruit someone stubborn. What is so interesting about that brooding vampire to you, anyways?"

Mateus scoffed. "It's not so much the man himself I'm interested in as the demon he's carrying inside him. Why do you think I was trying to trick him into a deal before?"

The blonde jester laughed, the cacophanous sound echoing in the hall. "Rightrightright. Well, maybe you're pushing the wrong buttons, Empy. From what I've heard tell, get the vampire man a little cheesed off at someone and WOOSH! Out comes the infinite destroying power of Chaos! Ooohoohoohoo! I get _goosebumps_ thinking what I could do with that kind of destructive _power_..."

"Yes..." Mateus replied, sounding bored. "He could be a useful asset to have. I've done my part in trying to convince him."

Kefka bounced around in place like a kindergartner impatient to answer the teacher's question.

"Not yet." Emperor Mateus snapped, glaring at the easily excited clown. "You'll get your chance with him, Kefka. For now, I say we turn his corruption over to the third member of our alliance."

The aforementioned third alliance member stepped into the small amount of light penetrating the room, earning a surprised and endlessly amused look from Kefka.

The blonde Emperor's lips tugged further into a smirk as he looked upon the new arrival. "I trust you have no objections... Golbez..."

.-.-.-.

Sora stood, arms crossed, silently fuming as Aerith, Yuffie, and Kairi looked through folder after folder after folder of information on Cid's computer, trying to find some hint as to where Cloud had gone. Though he had calmed down significantly from earlier, he was not looking forward to giving the apology to Vincent which Kairi was ordering him to. As he thought of the gunman, he realized it had been several hours since they had last seen or heard from him.

Almost as soon as the thought entered his head, Kairi looked back towards the door and said, "Vincent hasn't come back in a really long time. Guys, maybe we should stop our search for now and go look for him instead of Cloud. Besides, it looks like Cloud's already left the planet, if he ever did double back here."

"I think you're right..." Yuffie said softly. "Vince has a tendency to go off and brood, but this is ridiculous."

"Right. So let's go look for him." Kairi confirmed, opening the door and stepping outside.

What met her eyes was a bloodbath.

"No... Gaia, no..." Aerith gasped, taking in the macabre scene.

Bloody bodies were everywhere. Sheer loss of blood had rendered some into corpses, while others were still squirming with the signs of life. Limbs were roughly torn from some of them, and the bones were flung aside, broken on the ground. The lucky ones only had a large chunk torn out of their flesh by a savage mouth, or large gashes ripped open by feral claws.

Sora surveyed the scene with frightened and disbelieving eyes. _Did... did Vincent really do all this under Chaos's control? What he did to Hojo before was pretty bad, but- not like this... Nothing like this..._ He shivered as a new thought entered his head. _If this is what Vincent's capable of when he loses control, then what's gonna happen if I lose my hold on antiform?_

He shivered once more as he heard a soft, whispering chuckle in the dark recesses of his mind.

_**I think it's less a question of 'if' than 'when'.**_

"I'm going to see how many of these people I can still save. Yuffie, if you have any Cure materia on you, come with me. I need all the help I can get. Sora, Kairi, you go look for Vincent." Aerith ordered, forcing her voice to a calm tone to keep it from shaking.

"Right." the other three agreed.

As Aerith and Yuffie walked for one of the people in the town square who was still alive, Kairi turned to Sora, and asked, "Where do you think he went?"

"He created a pretty nasty trail of blood." Sora answered, shuddering. "Follow that to its end, and I think we'll find him."

And follow the trail the two teenagers did. It was jarring, thinking of this place almost returned to its former glory a few mere months ago. But then Sephiroth attacked, killing thousands and forcing the restoration efforts practically back to square one. And then, just when the citizens were starting to pull itself together from that vicious, underhanded attack- _this_. The two teens soon realized the trail was leading them right for Ansem's castle, and started running for the gate. Once they got out of the center point of town, the amount of corpses started decreasing, and the constant stream of blood started dissolving more and more into dripping spatters and footsteps from bloody shoes. They reached the front door of the castle, which was slightly cracked open, and heard the noise of someone being violently ill to their stomach.

Sora shuddered, shaking his head and backing up. He wouldn't be able to handle going in there. Not with the blood and the guts and now the stench of vomit on top of that. He found himself getting queasy just thinking of it.

Kairi shot a glare at Sora, as if to say 'get over it' before taking a deep breath, and entering the castle entrance hall herself.

Vincent was the first thing her eyes fell upon. He was crouched over in the corner in a fetal position, trembling like a small child. The Princess of Heart walked over to him, and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. Though the gunman surely heard her approaching, given his superhuman senses, he still started at the contact, blatantly refusing to turn back towards the young woman now touching him.

"Vincent? Are you- _you_ again?" Kairi asked softly, mentally slapping her forehead at her choice of words. But really, there was no better way to phrase the question.

"In a manner of speaking." Vincent answered bluntly, feeling another wave of nausea hit his stomach.

The young princess held the older man's hair back from his face as he succumbed to the clenching of his stomach, and tried to expel the contents of it. Unfortunately, it seemed there was nothing left to get rid of, though his whole body shuddered with the effort of trying to rid himself of what was making him so ill.

"It'll be okay. Shhh. Calm down. It'll be okay. It's over now." Kairi whispered soothingly, trying her best to console the wretched shadow of her comrade before her.

"No it won't." Vincent answered, when he finally regained enough muscular control to speak properly. "Not so long as Chaos is within me, it will never be over. I'm a monster."

"No you're not, Vincent." the auburn-haired girl eased, kneeling down behind the raven-haired man.

Kairi suppressed a gasp as Vincent whirled around to face her. Blood was in his mouth, staining his teeth a deep crimson, dripping downwards, plopping to the ground between them. The few trails down his face where the blood was gone were a result of whatever tears he shed earlier, judging from how his eyes were swollen.

"Tell me, Princess," Vincent began, still trying his best to avert his eyes from the younger girl, "how can you look on this face, and tell me it's not the face of a monster?"

Even though she knew she would get blood all over herself in so doing, she pulled Vincent into a comforting, sisterly embrace. "Because I know you. And you, Vincent, are no monster. You're human. The monster in this is Chaos, not you."

Vincent remained stock still in the embrace, neither accepting it nor rejecting it. After a moment's thought, he asked in reply, "What happens when the line between us is blurred? Who, then, is the monster?"

At those few words, Kairi had to pull away. Because, try as she might to think of one that would ease the pain, she didn't really have an answer.

.-.-.-.

Next time: Sora, having finally been persuaded to return to the alliance, pilots the trio back towards the three worlds, only to get sucked in to the middle of an air battle over the Blue Planet. But who is the silver-haired figure who saved them from certain destruction? And why does he look so familiar?


	7. Blue Moons and Ransacked Worlds

**Disclaimer:** I claim no ownership of any of the characters, locations, and etcetera used in this fanfiction. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners. No infringement is intended by this work.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Six- Blue Moons and Ransacked Worlds

After some quick clean-up and damage control, Sora, Kairi, and Vincent left upon Aerith's advice. The Cetra spoke the truth when she said the general populace would be crying out for the blood of whoever was responsible for this massacre, and in Squall's current absence, there was no telling what they would do without a ruler around. Not wanting any of her friends to be hurt, regretting that this travesty ever occured, Aerith sent them away to whatever duties needed to be accomplished in the worlds.

Sora, having finally been convinced by Kairi's protests and pleading, was flying the Gummi Ship through the fastest pathway possible to reach the trio of warring worlds. However, as the flight dragged on, he felt his eyes being continually drawn to Kairi and Vincent. Vincent was still devastated after the massacre on Radiant Garden, and Kairi had been trying to comfort him nonstop since. Though he knew this was utterly ridiculous, Sora couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy that she was there so solidly for Vincent, and had as of yet failed to properly be there for _him_.

He was soon startled out of these thoughts by the rude awakening of a blast of laser fire scorching the starboard side of the ship.

"What the hell-?" Sora exclaimed, bringing the ship's speed down from hyper to normal.

That simple move brought their surroundings into much sharper focus. They were back over the trio of warring worlds, all right- and it looked like the Blue Planet was under a full-scale invasion and assault. Gestahlian and Palamecian Imperial Class battleships were looming over the Blue Planet, blasting down out of the sky the small fighters trying to menace them, aided by a squadron of ships with completely red bodies and wings.

"Battle stations, guys." Sora ordered, starting to regain control of his senses and trying to regain control of the situation. "Kairi, you stay put. Vincent, I need you on secondary weapons."

There was no movement from either party. Sora narrowed his eyes, and turned back to face the raven-haired gunman. "Vincent! Weapons! Now!"

Kairi slid into the chair nearest the weapons controls, strapping herself in, and manning the secondary weapons console. "Sora, he's got a lot on his mind right now. I can handle these weapons just as well as anyone else."

"Kairi, get back in your seat!" Sora shouted, glaring at her with his remaining eye. "I don't want you getting hurt!"

Kairi narrowed her eyes at Sora. "I'm not still the helpless damsel in distress I was two years ago. I can handle this. I took out most of Sephiroth's forces when he tried assaulting Radiant Garden _on my own_. Piloting, weapons, and all. I _think_ I can handle things while Vincent reboots."

"I'm not having _you_ get hurt because the _coward_ back there can't get it together!" Sora retorted. He turned back to the older man sitting in the back, and seethed, "Vincent, if you don't get up here and man the weapons, like I _told_ you to, gods help me, I will-!"

"IF YOU TWO WILL STOP BICKERING AND PILOT THIS THING, MAYBE WE WON'T GET BLOWN UP!" Vincent snapped, finally breaking out of the haze he had been in for the past several hours.

The two teens visibly recoiled at the sound of the raven-haired gunman's shouting. Neither of them had ever heard him honestly shout at someone before. The awkward silence shattered into pieces as another barrage of laser fired slammed into the Gummi Ship's hull, causing multiple alarms to start twittering like mad.

"Great." Sora muttered under his breath. "That last hit breached the hull. The Blizzaga and Ultima Gummis are down. We're sitting ducks!"

"If we get to work on actually piloting this thing, I think the shields can hold up long enough for us to at least reach a surface where we can land and try to wait this out." Kairi stated, determined to keep a calm head.

"Not for long." Vincent amended. "From the looks of things, the shields are operating at only forty percent efficiency. We'd need to move fast."

"Well, that's what I built this thing for." Sora shot back irritably. "Speed and firepower. Vincent, I'd strap myself in if I were you, because there's going to be some serious aerial acrobatics going on in about two seconds."

"Joy..." Vincent murmured, rolling his eyes, doing as the younger man commanded.

With that, Sora diverted all power from the now non-functioning weapons gummis towards the engines and shields, and took the controls. Kairi gripped the arms of her seat as Sora sped them straight into the veritable minefield of lasers, missiles, and shockwave bombs flying back and forth between the fleets. She was very glad she had strapped herself in tightly, as Sora soon went in to a barrel roll for a solid thirty seconds to avoid a batch of targeting missiles fired at their ship. When the ship had finally straightened again, she looked out and behind the ship through the side window, and found one of the main Palamecian Cruisers floating up behind them, charging its turbolaser in a blast that would not only shatter the shields, but completely pulverise the ship as well.

"Sora..." she said shakily, looking at the spiky-haired teen.

"I know, I see him, I'm trying to get out of the way, but the controls aren't responding!" Sora shouted, pulling the steering all the way towards the right to demonstrate his point. The ship didn't budge an inch.

"Lovely. We're caught in a tractor beam while the other ship tries to blast us." Vincent sneered. "Well, this was a brilliant idea. Coming back into the middle of a war zone without a plan."

"Vincent, would you stop it with the sarcasm?" Sora shouted. "Pretty much every word out of your mouth since we've started this journey has been some kind of sarcastic comment on the situation at hand, and I've had eno- why is the ship moving again?"

Sora's tirade was cut short by the discovery that the ship was once again moving forward, and both the ship which had them caught in a tractor beam and the ship trying to fire on them were consumed in massive explosions behind them. A small, red-winged fighter hovered just above them for a second, and Sora heard a radio transmission being made, though it was obscured by the static created by the battle field's weapons.

_"...ooked like your weapons were down... ollow me... ould be able... ose them if... moon's surface..."_

With that transmission, the red-winged ship sped off towards one of the twin moons hovering over the Blue Planet.

"Sora, I think he wants us to follow him over there." Kairi said softly, pointing to where the ship went.

Sora heard Kairi's words, and followed the order implicit within them, but his mind was entirely elsewhere. As the red-winged ship had sped off, Sora swore he saw a shine of silver on the pilot's head through the cockpit.

_Could it be...?_ Sora wondered as he flew towards the larger of the moons, where it seemed the other ship had landed in a ravine. _Could it really be him? After all this, could he be-?_

After a moment's fiddling with the landing gear, Sora brought the ship down to land softly, and allowed the cockpit to open. Thankfully, this moon seemed to have some sort of breatheable atmosphere, so they didn't suffocate upon the sudden dissipation of the oxygen in the ship. The three travellers unfastened their seatbelts, and ran for the other ship, where the pilot was exiting the ship with his back turned to them.

"Thank you so much for your help." Kairi said, smiling. "We would've died without your help."

"Who... are you?" Sora asked, trying not to let his voice betray the hope now swelling in his heart. "Do I... know you? Are you Ri-?"

"I can't say that I know you three from anywhere." the pilot replied, finally turning to face the three whose lives he had saved. "And as to being your savior, please, it was nothing. It is my duty as a knight to aid those in need, after all."

Sora felt the small rays of hope that had entered his heart being blocked out by a dark cloud of sorrow and confusion as he looked fully upon the man who saved them. His hair was indeed silver- but closer to purest white than the almost ashen shade which the others he had known with that hair took. His eyes were a calm, peaceful blue instead of the shallow turquoise he had hoped to see, and his pale skin and blue-tinged lips spoke of an otherwordly appearance. The man was dressed in the brilliant silvers and whites of a paladin's armor, with a light blue cape hanging from his shoulders. And now that Sora looked even more closely, he could see the vague beginnings of wrinkles around the man's eyes. He had to be nearing his forties at this point. Not at all the teenager he'd expected to see.

"My name is Cecil Harvey. And, until this moment, I have been wandering world after world after world trying to reach my home again after its initial fall to darkness some seventeen years prior." the man, now known as Cecil, greeted. "It is good to have finally returned to my homeworld. But what, by the gods, has happened here? Why is there such a siege laid upon my people?"

"Wait. What? The Blue Planet was consumed in darkness... seventeen years ago?" Sora wondered aloud, sounding less curious and more suspicious by the word. "That's. Not. Possible. Radiant Garden was the first world consumed in darkness by the Heartless, and that's only because it was overrun thanks to Xehanort's stupid experiments _ten_ years ago!"

"Not necessarily." Vincent cut him off. "As loathe as I am to trust an utter stranger, this man did save our lives. And while Radiant Garden may have been the first well-documented case of this occurence, considering the large size of the world, I think natural Heartless exist in more than plentiful numbers to overrun a smaller world such as this one on their own, if the door to the world's heart was weakened."

"Which it was, even after we returned the crystals protecting the world to their proper place." Cecil replied solemnly. "It was terrible. The last thing any of us were conscious of was the terrible shadows blocking out the sun and moonlight... And then, I awoke on a world far, far from my own, set to do battle time upon time upon time before the cycle finally broke, and I was free to find my way back."

"How many years did that take?" Kairi wondered, pitying the man before her who had been so long separated from his home. She could identify with him on having been lost from her true home for a long time. But- at least she had made a second home. This man had been condemned to fight for much of that time in a world he did not know.

"I know not." Cecil answered, shaking his head. "Five years, ten... Thirteen? Yes... thirteen times did the cycle begin and end. Twelve times felled in battle and brought back, only the last time truly freed from the shackles of the cycle..."

"Wait. 'Felled in battle'? You died in twelve of these cycles? So it _is_ possible for someone to return from an early grave?" Sora asked, his voicing rising feverishly as curiosity now lit up once more in his heart.

"Possible with the influence of a god or goddess, perhaps." the older knight answered, surprised by the scarred younger man's fervor. "But beyond that, I do not know for certain."

_There is more to the tale of these three travellers than I have a right to ask..._ Cecil thought as he glanced over the three of them once again. _These children have seen more than they ought, that is for certain. And the man accompanying them must be some sort of bodyguard or advisor of theirs. But I have no right to pry into their pasts until they wish to share them._

Kairi's eyes flew open wide at Sora's final question. _Oh Sora, you can't be thinking of... I knew it would take some time to move on from this- I still haven't fully gotten over it myself, but he can't keep thinking Riku's just going to show back up someday... If he keeps doing that, he'll never be able to heal..._

"You still have yet to answer my question." Cecil slowly spoke, trying to break the silence now falling amongst the group. "What is going on here? Why is there such a fearsome battle raging over my home?"

"In your absence, the two worlds nearest your own have banded together and decided to invade. Without proper leadership, they've been doomed from the start. Your homeworld may as well be Imperial Territory now, because only a few ships from the resistance are here helping, and most of them have been blown out of the sky." Vincent answered, cutting bluntly to the chase.

A pained expression crossed Cecil's face. "I've been gone for far too long..."

Kairi could no longer hear the distant echoes of laser fire and explosions resounding in the distance. "I think the battle's ended for now. Perhaps we should go down to the Blue Planet's surface..."

"An excellent suggestion- wait. I don't know any of your names."

Kairi and Sora summoned their Keyblades, earning a surprised look from Cecil.

"I'm Sora, the Keyblade Master." the spiky-haired teen stated.

"I am Kairi, Keyblade Master, and Princess of Radiant Garden." Kairi added.

Vincent reluctantly walked over to the others, and spoke up. "I'm Vincent Valentine."

"A pleasure to meet the three of you. Please, if it's not too much trouble, would you help me try to find some of my former comrades? Going into countries now occupied by other forces alone does not exactly appeal to me." Cecil pleaded.

"We'll help." Kairi agreed, shutting off any other arguments with a death glare.

Given the damaged state of Sora, Kairi, and Vincent's Gummi Ship, the trio decided to ride in the Cecil's fighter down to the Blue Planet's surface. Cecil landed them near a vast desert, where the ruins of a once mighty castle now stood.

"So, where are we right now?" Sora wondered. "Looks pretty desolate."

"This is Damcyan." Cecil answered. "Normally, it's a very beautiful kingdom, a jewel in the desert, but with things as they are now, it seems Castle Damcyan has once again fallen under attack."

As the group of four stepped outside the ship, the true scale of the devastation became apparent. Many of the outer walls were utterly collapsed. Some of the taller towers were caving in upon themselves. Windows were shattered, doors reduced to splinters, rubble littered the sandy earth.

Cecil ran ahead of the other three, calling out, "Edward? Edward, can you hear me?"

"I'm here." a tenor voice weakly called, emerging from behind a particularly large piece of rubble. "Cecil... is that really you?"

"Yes." Cecil replied. "I've returned. I'm so, so sorry I wasn't here when I was needed..."

The man known as Edward, a slender blonde man dressed as a minstrel, shook his head. "Do not fret. It's good that you have returned after so many years. We were all beginning to fear you had perished."

"'We were all'..." Cecil muttered, trailing off. "What of the others? Yang? And Kain? And... Rosa. Where is she? How is she?"

"I know not." Edward admitted sadly, his head drooping like a wilted flower. "Ever since our world returned and we returned to it, I have not had the chance to speak with her. She has been incredibly busy trying to run the kingdom in your absence."

"What happened here?" Cecil asked, pulling the question from Vincent's throat before he had the chance to vocalize it. "Who attacked you?"

Edward averted his shallow blue eyes from Cecil's as he replied, "I cannot say."

"Why not?" Sora demanded, startling him. "Is it because you're in with the Empire and don't want your hands dirty? Huh?"

"No!" Edward insisted, seeing Cecil's betrayed expression from Sora's words. "No. Nothing of the sort. It's just- this will be painful for you to hear, Cecil... The state of my kingdom now is the result of the same man's actions as it was back then. Golbez. And Kain was aiding him."

Cecil's light blue eyes flew wide open. "What? But- that's impossible... He wouldn't... Neither of them would... Not after..."

"I'm afraid it's true, Cecil." Edward replied, his voice weary. "Both of them have fallen under the influence of some outside source, and now return to their previous, darker paths. Golbez was clad once more in his armor of blackest night. I tried- we tried our best to repel him and his forces, but his magicks were too powerful. It was only by hiding myself that I was able to survive."

"Wait." Kairi interrupted, stepping in towards the two comrades. Edward looked at the young woman quizzically, wondering what her reason was for interrupting. "You said it was as though some outside force were manipulating them...?"

"I know not for certain what was the cause of their actions." the bard softly stated. "However, Kain did approach me closely enough to where I could get a glimpse of his eyes hidden beneath the helmet- and the eyes I found meeting my own were cold. Deadened. Ergo I assume both he and Golbez are being controlled by someone else."

"But who?" Cecil asked. "Zemus and Zeromus are long gone from this world..."

"Mateus!" Sora cut in, spitting the word out with such venom it sounded like a curse. "He's the one who's been trying to invade other worlds from the start. So it doesn't surprise me that he'd try manipulating some of this world's inhabitants to work for him."

Bard, paladin, Keyblade wielder, princess, and gunman all started in terror when a deep, booming voice began to fill the entrance hall.

"So, though the trap has been sprung, and the vermin have died, still the other mice refuse to scatter, instead gathering like moths before a flame. I'm disappointed, Cecil."

"Golbez!" Cecil cried out as the recognition hit him. "Brother, where are you?"

"Brother?" Sora and Kairi asked in unison, looking at each other for the answer.

"Come and find me, if you will." Golbez taunted, leaving his voice to echo and fade into nothingness.

At that moment, Cecil began to run for the stairs leading them upwards towards the one still-standing tower of the castle. Despite cries of protest from Kairi and Edward, and a warning from Vincent, he continued to climb the stairs, hearing the footfalls of the others pursuing him after a few moments. Within minutes, they emerged from the cool darkness of the stone castle into the heat and bright sunlight of the desert as they reached, the top of the tower.

"Brother. Why are you doing this?" Cecil asked, sounding hurt.

"My motivation matters not. I did not come to treat with worms." the heavily-armored foe replied, his deep baritone voice echoing out from behind his helmet.

Before anyone had time to react, he was before them again, this time with Kairi's wrists graps firmly in his left hand. Despite her struggling, the Princess of Heart couldn't escape from the iron vice grip which now bound her and held her helpless.

"Kairi!" Sora shouted, trying to charge for Golbez, Keyblade drawn.

"Sora, no!" Vincent halted, throwing out his arm to block the younger man.

"A wise decision." Golbez replied. "Had your assault continued, I would have dropped her to her death. Now, then. The Empire is only interested in one of you. Vincent, as you call him, possesses something of great value to the Emperor. Therefore, I suggest a prisoner exchange. You obviously care for this girl a great deal, Keyblade wielder. What's her life against the freedom of the one who guards you?"

Vincent's eyes widened. _If the Empire manages to force the demon out of me, then the Rebellion will..._

Aloud, he said, "Sora, you can't do this. You'd be betraying everyone if-"

The spiky haired teen narrowed his unscarred eye. He'd had about enough of the gunman and his actions regardless. Trading him off to the Empire would make him someone else's problem. Besides, it was the only way to keep Kairi safe. So, ignoring the older man's words, he spat, "Deal."

The raven-haired man fell silent. The utter coldness with which the exchange deciding his and the rebellion's fate was decided shocked him. Sora honestly cared so little for this conflict and Vincent himself that he would willingly hand him over to the Empire?

Sora threw Vincent to the ground before Golbez, forcing him to clamber to his feet before his new captor.

"You have what you asked for." Cecil stated, stepping forward. "Now let. The girl. Go."

Golbez chuckled darkly, and a shudder of foreboding ran down Vincent's spine. Cecil had walked right into the armored man's next cruel move.

"That was a particularly poor choice of words, Cecil." Golbez stated calmly, before releasing his grip on Kairi's arms, and allowing her to fall down hundreds of feet towards the earth.

"KAIRI!" Sora shouted, reaching his arm out for her. But he knew inside it was futile. There was no way he could reach her without dying himself. And he cursed himself for not having kept Kadaj's Cruxis Crystal after Riku-

Before the thoughtline could complete itself, Sora found his body turning to darkness. He was going to make Golbez pay, he was going to make him suffer for what he had done to Kairi. With a shriek of rage, Anti-Sora leapt for Golbez, forcing him to release Vincent from where he had been trying to escape with his prisoner.

Golbez easily knocked aside the Feral Heartless, halting it's assault, and glared at the others who stood before him, weapons drawn as if to fight. "Allow me to give you something."

Energy began crackling between Golbez's fingers, and Cecil's memory of the assault he faced before came flooding back to his mind just in time for him to warn the others.

"Look out!" Cecil shouted, standing in front of Vincent.

"A gift!" Golbez shouted, sending the magical energy flying towards the entire group, capturing and electrifying all of them.

His torture was cut short when a familiar-looking dragoon crashed into him from above, and leapt lithely aside, setting an unharmed Kairi on the castle bricks.

"_What_?" Golbez shouted, infuriated. It couldn't be him, it was impossible. His control was absolute-!

"Kairi!" Sora cried out, abruptly returning to normal. He ran to the red-haired princess, and embraced her. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Sora." Kairi reassured him. "A little shaken, but fine."

While the others were still approaching Kairi, making sure she was unharmed, Cecil saw Golbez teleporting away out of the corner of his eye. "Brother, wait!"

But it was too late. Golbez was gone. Thankfully, he had left in such a rush, he had forgotten to take Vincent captive- or perhaps, could not, thanks to the dragoon's interference. Cecil looked over at the dragoon, unable to believe his own eyes.

"Kain...?" he asked hesitantly. "Is that you?"

The dragoon cocked his head for a moment, before replying, "Kain? The name kinda familiar, but it's not my name."

The dragoon removed his helmet to reveal a head of short, messy brown hair and hazel eyes, his mouth spread in a mischeivious smile. "My name's Bartz. It's nice to meet you all."

-.-.-.-

With Bartz now joining the group, what is to become of them? How will Vincent react to having almost been traded off to the Imperials? Why did Golbez leave so suddenly after Bartz's arrival? And how are they to free the Blue Planet from the Empire's grip? Find out next time!


	8. To Tell A Sad Truth

**Disclaimer:** I claim no ownership of any of the characters, locations, and etcetera used in this fanfiction. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners. No infringement is intended by this work.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Seven- To Tell A Sad Truth...

He could feel armor-clad fingers pressing more and more tightly inward on his windpipe with every passing second. It was becoming a struggle to even breathe, much less answer the question now being bellowed in his face.

"Why did you interfere?" Golbez shouted, his hand wrapping even more securely around the struggling dragoon's throat. "Why did you save that girl? Answer me, Kain!"

Kain gasped for breath, his eyes starting to water from the pain. "M'lord, I have no... idea what you're..."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" the larger magus roared, tightening his grip.

Kefka let out a childish giggle of delight at the show unfolding before his eyes. His permanent grin stretched even wider as he saw Kain's pitiful struggles and attempts to answer the irate Lunarian now interrogating him. Mateus, who until this moment had merely surveyed the scene from his throne, had grown bored with this pitiful show before him, and stood up.

"Golbez, I've searched for cracks in your control and there are none." Emperor Mateus stated condescendingly. "Kain speaks the truth when he says he has no idea what you are talking about. Enough of this foolishness. Golbez, release him."

"As you wish." Golbez conceded, immediately releasing his vicegrip on his servant's windpipe.

The armor-clad dragoon dropped to the floor with an unceremoniously loud thud, and spent several of the next passing minutes gasping for only now returning breath.

Kefka looked very disappointed. "Awww, I wanted to see him squirm more..."

"That's enough, Kefka." Mateus cut in sharply. "It seems our wayward warriors have finally returned to this conflict. Golbez, as they're still on your world, I leave it in your jurisdiction as to how you deal with them. The others I don't care one way or the other about, but bring Vincent here alive."

"And if anyone should try to intervene once more?" Golbez asked. "What of any civilians who may stand in the way?"

"Wipe them out." the emperor stated, his voice hardening. "_All_ of them."

.-.-.-.

Sora, Kairi, Vincent, Cecil, Edward and Bartz had been sitting aboard the latter's massive Gummi Ship for about an hour after Golbez had left. Having finally eaten some food, which Sora and Kairi hadn't had for days on end, moods were becoming slightly less sharp, and the group began settling into some semblance of relaxation.

"So... Bartz, is it?" Cecil began, breaking the silence previously only broken by the sounds of ravenous eating. "You're a dragoon?"

Bartz tilted his head from side to side. "Ehhh, yes and no. Right now I am, because I'm trying to train my skills, and get over my fear of heights... But I've actually learned skills from about five different classes, as has the captain of this ship."

"Wait, you're not the captain?" Sora cut in, now sounding suspicious. "If you're not, then who is?"

Bartz put a hand to his chin, and mock-stroked a nonexistant beard in thought. "Hmmm... It's weird. I thought Faris would've already gotten on to me by now for bringing outsiders on the ship. Ever since we've started travelling from world to world, we've had this rule about not bringing outsiders from the worlds we visit onto the ship. But you guys all kind of look like fish out of water here anyway, so I don't really see the problem. Besides, getting to know new people is the best part of an adventure!"

The red-haired princess chose that moment to start giggling. Everyone looked at her, completely bewildered by the sudden outburst. This was hardly the time to be laughing.

"I- I'm sorry." she apologized, trying to keep herself from laughing harder. "It's just- Bartz, you sound like Sora did about three years ago when we were trying to leave our home world..."

Bartz looked over at the spiky haired teen, his eyes wide in mock shock. "You mean Mr. Scarred and Serious over there was actually once a kid?"

"_Still_ a child." Vincent corrected acidly. "If his earlier impulsive decision which nearly got Kairi killed and myself captured is anything to judge by."

Any merriment in the atmosphere died at that moment, replaced by a sharp edge of anger. Sora's right eye narrowed as he looked over at Vincent, who was glaring crimson daggers at him.

"Whoa, now, I was only kidding." Bartz cut in, trying to diffuse the tension. "Let's not turn this into a big fight."

"I'm not trying to start a fight." Vincent stated, keeping his voice level, yet somehow still biting in tone. "All I'm saying is that had Golbez succeeded in his earlier plans, the Empire would have in their hands a weapon more powerful than you can imagine, and Kairi would now be dead, as he went back on his word to spare her. I'm not sure whether this shows you still have some of your childish naievete, or your impulsiveness, but either way, it was a foolish decision that need not be repeated."

"Right." Sora answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "And I'm sure your objection has nothing at all do with jealousy over the fact that I value Kairi's life over yours."

Vincent refused to deign that statement with a response, and Sora refused to press further. An awkward silence began spiralling amongst the people in the group.

"So... umm... any of you up for some more behemoth steak?" Bartz asked cheerfully, abruptly breaking the tension.

"Yes, please. I'm starving!" Sora insisted, stabbing a very large slice of it onto his plate. "I don't even remember how long it's been since I ate..."

As Sora began eating his steak with extreme fervor, Kairi looked over at Vincent, who seemed to have hardly touched the food on his plate at all. Or, rather, he had not touched the medium-sized rare cut of behemoth steak still sitting on his plate, and was instead pushing his vegetables around, only taking small bites of them from time to time.

"Vincent, why are you just pushing your food around? You're not hungry?" Kairi wondered, concern worming its way into her voice.

"No, not particularly." Vincent answered curtly, his tone letting on that he wanted the subject dropped.

"You sure you don't want to eat that behemoth steak?" Bartz asked. "It's really really good!"

As if to demonstrate his point, he took a rather large bite out of his own piece of steak.

The gunman shuddered as if sickened, and replied in a strained tone of voice, "No, thank you. I'm not particularly in the mood to feast on flesh right now..."

The scarred, spiky-haired teen muttered something under his breath that Vincent just barely heard over the sound of clinking silverware and eating.

"What was that, Sora?" Vincent hissed.

Sora raised his voice only slightly. "Almost forgot you had a taste for the flesh of humans."

"Sora!" Kairi admonished, glaring at him. "That was uncalled for!"

Bartz and Cecil's facial expressions abruptly shifted to ones of confusion as Edward's face began to blanch white. They were torn between looking at the sullen Sora and the now livid-looking Vincent.

"Sora, you know as well as I do that what happened on Radiant Garden was not Vincent's fault!" Kairi interjected. "Now, you apologize to Vincent right now!"

"Why should I?" Sora snapped back. "It's true. And it _is_ his fault, what happened at Radiant Garden, because _he_ was the idiot who wasn't strong enough to hold Chaos off."

"Maybe I might have been if you hadn't _provoked_ me!" Vincent shot back.

Kairi's eyes went wide as she saw the vague beginnings of red and dark auras forming around Sora and Vincent, respectively. If another fight like the one on Radiant Garden broke out, then everyone aboard the ship would be in danger. "Sora, Vincent, calm down. Please. Don't make another mess like what happened before. Please, just calm down."

Vincent closed his eyes, and breathed deeply a few times while Sora opened and closed his mouth stupidly, turning away and sulking. It seemed Kairi's words had reached them both. The gunman grabbed his plate and drink, and began to walk out of the area.

"Vincent, you don't have to leave..." the auburn-haired princess stated quietly.

"It's probably for the best if I'm not around people right now." Vincent stated curtly. "I'll be finishing this meal outside. _Alone_. Please, don't follow me."

And on that cold farewell, Vincent turned his back on the group, and walked out of the room, his cape billowing behind him. Cecil, Edward, and Bartz looked after him in varying degrees of suprise, while Kairi appeared somewhat concerned and Sora rolled his eyes.

"Well, more food for us, then." Sora chuckled, in a dark, sarcastic reprise of his younger self's childlike behavior.

His comment was met with stares and silence from everyone else. After a few minutes of feeling their glares on him like laser sights while he tried to eat, he finally snapped, "What? What do you expect me to do? Go after him and- and- beg for forgiveness? Apologize, when he's the one in the wrong?"

"Perhaps it's not my place to speak..." Cecil interrupted timidly, "but you were being rather rude to him earlier. I'm not saying you need to apologize right away, but you should at least try to make amends at some point."

"What do _you_ know?" the teen shot back. "You- you think you can just tell me how to act around people who I've known much longer than you have? You think you can just waltz into this group and tell me what to do? You have no idea the hell I've been through within the past month, so don't even try to worm your way into my-"

Sora cut off his own rant in mid-sentence as Edward, who had been mostly silent during this whole scene, quailed under the boy's scarred glower. The teen rolled his one good eye, and took his plate and drink into his hands, as he had already stood up while shouting at Cecil.

"You know what? I'm going elsewhere to finish this meal. Somewhere where I can actually eat _in peace_ without being judged by you people. Come on, Kairi, let's go." Sora finished, his voice rising sharply on the final order. He turned back after a moment to find Kairi still sitting at the table, her arms crossed, sapphire eyes glaring up at his face. It was clear whose side she was on. "Okay. Fine. Do what you want. Come and find me when you're ready to go."

The door slammed shut behind Sora with an echoing _bang_.

An awkward silence spiralled throughout the room and among its inhabitants for several minutes, until Bartz awkwardly cleared his throat to break it. "So... uh... what was that all about?"

"You know, it's not polite to pry into someone else's affairs." Cecil scolded, looking at Bartz. Then, turning his kind eyes towards Kairi, he added, "Though I must admit... I am curious as to why those two seem so antagonistic towards one another. As you three travel in a group and fight as one, I had thought you were good friends."

"We wer- _are_." Kairi replied. "It's just- I think with everything that's been happening lately, the tension between us is a bit high-strung."

"I'll say." the brown-haired freelancer murmured.

"It sounds as though you've been through a great deal." Cecil replied sympathetically. "Much more of an ordeal than any your age should have to go through, it seems. I know we all hardly even know each other, but if we are to work together, I think we should know what's happened and happening to you and your comrades. I understand if you do not wish to tell me this information, but I'm asking, as a comrade, please. Tell us your story."

Kairi sighed. She wasn't sure how, or if, she was supposed to respond. "I don't even know where to begin..."

"The beginning's a good place to start telling a grand story of adventure!" Bartz cut in.

"A narrative ballad usually begins at a hero's birth." Edward supplied helpfully.

The princess opened her mouth to begin, only to be cut off by Cecil.

"Wait. Before you begin. I have something I have to ask. As it appears you have travelled to other worlds as well, I must ask you- have you come across any of my friends? Their names are Yang, Edge, and Rydia. Have you seen any of them?"

_Rydia?_ Kairi thought. _That's Riku's mother's-! Oh no... Wait. Maybe it's not the same Rydia..._

"What did Rydia look like?" Kairi wondered, praying her thoughts would prove wrong.

"Well, when I met her, she was a small child. But as an adult, she had green hair and green eyes. She was a slight woman, but was quite strong-willed. She usually dressed in green clothes. Why? Have you seen her?" Cecil stated, his voice rising at the final inquiry.

Kairi sighed. So she was right. "Yes. I've seen her. I didn't know her very well, but I knew her for a few years. But, Cecil... You're not going to be able to reunite with her. At least, not right now. She- She's in a good place. Her heart's returned to her world."

Cecil could easily recognize the euphemistic attempts to spare him the truth. "So... she's dead, then."

Kairi's watery-eyed silence gave the obvious answer. The paladin felt the burn of unshed tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He had always tried to protect Rydia- the youngest of the travelling group. It was the best he could do to make up for destroying her home. And now, without Cecil even having the chance to truly atone for his actions, she was forever lost.

"I... I see. How did she die?" he wondered. _If she was killed, I will find some way to avenge her..._

The Princess of Heart's head dropped to her chest, tears flowing down her face freely now. "I'm sorry... I- I don't know where to even begin to answer that. If I tell you straight away who did the deed without any prior explanation, then I do a disservice to the dead..."

"It will be all right." Cecil reassured, placing a hand on the young woman's shoulder. "Just- begin wherever you most see fit."

Kairi nodded, regaining her composure. "Right. Well, I suppose I should start from the beginning... Vincent, Sora, and I have been travelling together for a while, but it wasn't always the three of us going from world to world. Actually, Vincent didn't join us until fairly recently. But before we even left to go to other worlds, there was another boy among us. His name was Riku. He and Sora were friends back home on the islands where we all grew up long before I arrived. I am not only a Princess of Heart, but the Princess of Radiant Garden. And when my old homeworld was consumed in darkness, I was just a small child. I have no memories of my life there. All my memories of childhood are of the islands- of Sora, Riku, and I playing together. Sora and I were the same age, but Riku was a year older than us. We kind of looked up to him. He was the strongest kid on the islands. And the smartest. Sora always wanted to prove he was better than him, but he couldn't ever seem to do it when we were young."

Bartz and Edward were listening intently, but Cecil felt the need to cut in once more. "You say you knew Rydia for years. Was she on these islands of yours?"

Kairi nodded. "Yes. She was Riku's mother. She must have gotten pregnant with him very shortly after your world was consumed in darkness and she arrived on the islands. Though... why the father was who he was, I'll never understand... Anyways. That's a point for a bit later. So. Yes. I knew Rydia. We never really hung out at each other's houses often, instead going to a little islet off the coast where our parents had built structures that they used to play on. But I remember dropping Riku off at his house a few times, and seeing glimpses of her. She seemed like a really nice lady. And she was quite strong, too. Raising her son on her own after his father, well, abandoned her. I think Riku always knew on some level that his parents weren't from the islands, and that's why he wanted to leave them for another world so much. My arrival only made that desire more obvious. And as we grew up, he became more and more obsessed with a way off the islands. So Sora, Riku, and myself decided to start building a raft when we were teenagers. Sort of wanting to set sail, and never look back. And though I looked at both boys as my dear friends, I will admit, I had more than a slight crush on Riku. And a great deal of affection for Sora. I think they started recognizing it as we all got older, so they started competing for my attention... Maybe if they weren't so wrapped up in that competition, what happened next might never have occurred."

At that, the desire to keep the past locked up broke, and she told them how the islands were consumed in darkness. How her heart was ripped from her body, and how she was lucky to have found a safe haven within Sora's heart. How Sora and Riku both tried in different ways to find each other and save her. How Riku's attempts to bring her back led him into the darkness. How he became lost in the dark, willingly trapping himself in the realm of darkness to allow Sora to be with her. How she and Sora were separated again. How she forgot him over that dreadful year afterward- and how she began to remember him again. Being captured and used as bait by Axel. Being held captive by Sai'x. Breaking free from said captivity with Namine's help. Reuniting with Riku again, to find his appearance changed to the man who had possessed him before. Receiving her Keyblade from Riku, and fighting off Heartless that were menacing Sora. Their tender reunion. Their separation before the final battle with Xemnas. And the joy, the sheer joy of being able to see her friends alive and well, returned home to the islands. And then that shining moment ended.

Cecil could tell from the way Kairi's voice was trailing off that the next part of her story would be the hardest to tell. All the experiences she had thus far recounted were trials not meant for any children, but clearly the surface of the current turmoil had hardly even been scratched.

"What happened next?" the paladin wondered. "I feel this is the part of your story most relevant to what's going on now, and yet, you seem hesitant."

"I'm fine." Kairi sniffed, wiping some tears from her eyes, meeting the concerned gazes of the others. "I just- needed a moment to brace myself. You're right. This is the most relevant part, but it's also the darkest chapter of this story. A dark chapter that hasn't yet drawn to a close. So... please... bear with me if I break down in trying to say this. I ordinarily wouldn't, but I've kept this within our group for so long... If I try to hold it in any more, I may well explode."

"Then keep going." Bartz encouraged. "The dark parts of an adventure make the happy times that much happier by comparison, right?"

The young woman giggled. "Right. Well... soon afterward, we received a letter from King Mickey, who wanted us to come see him about something very urgent. That something- had to do with a man named Sephiroth."

The mention of the name sent an oddly familiar chill down Cecil and Bartz's spines, though they could not, for the life of them, recall ever meeting someone by that name.

"Sephiroth?" Edward queried, sounding frightened at the mere mention. "He sounds like a harbinger of disaster..."

"And that he was." Kairi replied. "By gaining the ability to control the Heartless from a sorceress named Maleficent, and using those abilities to manipulate and create others to work for him, he was able to reach his primary goal- ascent to godhood. He had eight people at his disposal for the purpose of distracting us as he worked on furthering his ascent. One of those people was Vincent. He had actually died, sacrificing himself in an attempt to save Radiant Garden as it was being consumed, but all for naught. Sephiroth struck a devil's bargain with the Lord of the Dead, and dragged Vincent back from his grave, brainwashing him and trapping him within his own devil's bargain to keep him in line. Sora, Riku, and I managed to free him from Sephiroth's control, and he's been travelling with us ever since. But before then, a different tragedy struck. We had just struck down Loz, one of Sephiroth's failed clones, when we were called to Radiant Garden to stop an attack by Sephiroth's forces on the planet. I could not stand the thought of my homeworld being orbitally bombarded and destroyed again by that madman, so I leapt back into the Gummi Ship against Sora's orders, and flew it up myself to take part in the battle against the cruisers Sephiroth was using to pulverize the planet. While I was occupied with that, Riku and Sora were forced to split up, and Riku fought against Sephiroth. In that fight, he discovered a truth long kept from him- that his father was not, as Rydia had made him believe, dead, but was in fact the very man whom we were trying to fight against."

"Wait." Cecil interrupted. "If Sephiroth was such a madman, I can see why Rydia lied to Riku. Better to save him that truth in hopes they would never run into each other than torment him with that fact. But what I fail to understand is why she would submit herself to someone like him..."

"He wasn't always a madman, or so I've heard." Kairi responded. "However, if what I recall from Cloud's talk of him is correct, then he would have already been insane by the time he came across Rydia. So... I don't think she did submit herself to him... Not willingly, at least..."

The knight's fingers clenched into a fist. "That _bastard_."

"You're certainly right about that." the princess agreed. "Maybe even in the literal sense as well, seeing as how his parentage was never really determined... Anyway. Riku found out that Sephiroth was his father, and, well... the revelation was a bit more than he could take. It made his mother most certainly a liar. And... I think he thought Sora and I might have known, even though we had absolutely no idea about it. So he thought everyone had turned their backs on him. And, well, he, like his father, lost his mind at the 'betrayal'. I think the final nail in the coffin was seeing our stunned and concerned reactions after he sprouted a silver angel's wing from his back... because after that, he vanished with his father. Sora went after him to the islands, ordering me to stay behind. I couldn't. So I borrowed a Gummi Ship from Cid, and flew to the islands behind him. When I got there, every structure was aflame. M-my friends, my parents, they were all dead... And I think Rydia was the first of them to die, considering she was the one Riku begrudged the most... I ran and ran, looking for any signs of life. And then I saw the islet's structures consumed in flame, and I knew for certain where my friends were. I took a row boat, like when we were young, and paddled out to the islands as fast as I could. When I reached the place where Sora and Riku were locked in combat, I saw Riku trying to land a finishing blow. So much as I had loved Riku in the past, I loved Sora more. I couldn't let him get hurt. So I interfered. I tried to fight him. I lost. Sora got angry, and tried attacking again, only to be hurt worse than before. Riku raised his blade to kill him, and I- I couldn't- I just couldn't take it anymore. I begged. I pleaded for Sora to be spared, offering something, _anything_ in exchange for his life. So I let Riku capture me."

"Wow. At least Riku was a guy of his word." Bartz commented. "I mean, he could've just whooshed you away and killed Sora anyway. Not that I'd have wanted that to happen, I'm just saying. At least he was an honorable bad guy, even after going all cuckoo bananas."

"Not quite as 'honorable' as you'd think, Bartz." Kairi corrected. "Seeing as how, after I was captured, he approached me in my cell, and rather took me up on my word of promising 'anything' in exchange for Sora's life."

"He _didn't_." Cecil growled, his chivalrous sensibilities offended at the very thought of something like that happening to the young woman in front of him. He couldn't help but feel a fatherly concern for the girl.

"He tried. But when Sora and the others trying to defeat Sephiroth arrived, he vanished. I picked the lock on my cell using the edge of one of the feathers from his wing, and ran to meet Sora. By the time I arrived, Riku had vanished, and Sora was... he was gravely injured, and was missing one of his eyes. I can't get that image out of my head... He was bleeding so much, and my healing skills were only rudimentary. The cuts were healed by a more expert healer, but the damage had been done. His left eye had been... eurgh... ripped out, and the scar was cut across his face."

"So the scar came from his fierce battle with his friend turned foe..." Edward commented, sounding a little faint from all the mentions of blood. "This seems like such a tragic ballad..."

"It's not even done yet." Kairi added, making the bard's face pale a little. "Despite the fresh injury, Sora still insisted on moving onward to fight against Sephiroth. But before we got a chance to fight him, a clearly battered Riku drifted down before us, and tried to protect us from his father. It seemed he'd finally come to his senses. But... I think he knew that he wouldn't survive a fight with his father in his state. I think... I think he wanted to die, after what had happened... And, well, if that was what he wanted, he got his wish. Sephiroth killed him. Sora, myself, and the rest of the group trying to take Sephiroth down emerged victorious, but Riku was long gone by then. And then we were told about the war going on here by King Mickey. Pulled away to battle before we were even given the proper chance to mourn our friend. And you see where we are now..."

For several minutes, there was silence. Tears were rolling down Kairi's face, despite her attempts to remain strong. She felt a hand brushing away the moisture on her cheek, and she looked up to find Bartz looking concernedly at her.

"Come on, now... It'll be okay. You don't need to get in to all that..." Bartz comforted, smiling at her. "Besides, I can't stand it when girls cry."

"I'm sorry..." was all Cecil could think of to say. "I shouldn't have forced you to tell us your story. If it caused you this much pain, I- I'm so sorry. None of you should have had to go through such things..."

As Kairi finally completely broke down crying, comforted by the three men sitting around her, an unknown observer clenched his fist in anger, and walked away.

.-.-.-.

Well, that was a long and flashback-y chapter. Join us next time as we meet the captain of the Gummi Ship, and travel towards Baron to free it from the Empire's grip!


	9. Getting Back to Business

**Disclaimer**: I claim no ownership of any of the characters, locations, and etcetera used in this fanfiction. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners. No infringement is intended by this work.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Eight- Getting Back to Business

"What the 'ell do ya think you're doin', lettin' a bunch of wash-ashores on this ship?"

The loud, brash voice broke the calm, dark abyss of Sora's, for once, dreamless sleep, leaving him in an even more foul mood than he was in yesterday after Kairi betrayed him. The little Princess had blabbed everything to the men surrounding her yesterday after he'd left.

_She probably just wanted to see how many of them would feel sorry for her._ Sora thought venomously.

He rolled over in his bunk, and pulled the blankets more tightly over him, only to be rudely awakened mere seconds later by someone pulling hard enough on said blankets to set him crashing down to the Gummi Ship floor.

"OW! Shit!" he exclaimed, rubbing sleep from his eyes with his right hand, and attempting to massage his now aching shoulder with his left. "I'm up, I'm up. Geez."

He opened his eyes fully to find Kairi glaring at him. "You know how I feel about that kind of language, Sora."

Sora rolled his good eye at her, and exited the room without answering.

Kairi sighed heavily, her right hand massaging her temple, and followed him. _I can already tell that this is going to be a long day..._

The two teens made their way back to the bridge of the Gummi Ship, where Cecil, Edward, Vincent, Bartz, and another man now stood. The other man was dressed in pirate's clothes, and looked like he was the captain of the ship, his lavender locks held back in a loose ponytail. The man seemed to have noticed their arrival, and turned viciously towards them, asking, "And who be ye?"

Sora, reacting on instinct to the blade being shoved into his personal space leapt back, summoning the Keyblade in a defensive position, glaring at the captain glowering at him.

"Sora." he stated curtly. "Keyblade master."

The captain glared at Sora a minute longer, then turned to Kairi. "And ye, lass?"

Kairi kept her head held high, and looked the captain right in the eye, though inside she was shaking with fear. "My name is Kairi. I am the Princess of Radiant Garden, and also a Keyblade Master."

"See, Faris?" Bartz asked, approaching the captain, clapping him on the shoulder from behind. "Keyblades. They know there are other worlds out there. And the others are refugees from worlds ravaged by Emperor Mateus and Emperor Gestahl."

"Wait, so you know about the war, then?" Vincent asked, crimson eyes narrowed at the freelancer and the captain. "And you haven't done anything?"

"Well..." Bartz answered sheepishly, "We've been claiming neutrality on that one. It's the only way we can travel between these three worlds, after all. We don't really stay in one place long enough to get involved. We go to a world, see what we wanna see, have some adventures, and leave."

The captain turned sharply towards Barts, grabbing him by the shoulder and turning around to face him. "You still should have consulted me before bringing them onboard."

Bartz grinned cheekily. "You weren't here. So I made an executive decision. Besides, you know you'd forgive me for it anyways."

"Excuse me, sir..." Kairi piped up, tapping the captain on the shoulder. "Would you mind telling us who exactly you are? I don't quite understand the details of what's going on here."

Captain Faris raised an eyebrow at the redhaired princess. "Ye still don't get it? Well, then. The name's Captain Faris. I'm the one who runs this ship."

Bartz picked that moment to cut in. "She's also a renegade princess, and a really strong fighter."

"_She_?" Sora asked incredulously. "Y-You mean... the captain's a _woman_?"

Faris turned back to face Sora, and raised her sword to his face. "And be there a problem with that, lad?"

Sora shook his head. "No, no, it's just... I thought..."

"Truthfully, I thought the same thing." Cecil answered ashamedly, his head downturned.

Faris held her head high. "Well, _ye_ try being the only lass aboard a pirate ship and see how long ye last."

There was a long pause as all parties aboard the ship looked at one another, waiting for someone to speak.

"Well, now that everyone is acquainted," Vincent commented, sounding far more sarcastic than was his intent, "perhaps our next move should be to discuss our next course of action."

"Right." Kairi agreed, nodding. "We were heading for Palamecian territory to meet up with agents for the Wild Rose."

"So, you're with the rebellion?" Bartz asked, stroking his nonexistent beard in thought.

"Sora, Kairi, and myself are." Vincent clarified. "Cecil and Edward... I'm not sure. I feel certain they want the imperial presence in their homeworld eradicated, but whether or not they will join the rebellion is-"

"I'll join." Cecil cut in. "I will gladly join any force that wishes to eliminate the evil that has choked my kingdom while I was away. That is... my only way to atone for having abandoned it so long ago..."

"And I will fight with him." Edward added. "Though I fear for the consequences, my kingdom has fallen twice. I will not stand for it to do so again!"

"Okay, so sign up two more for the rebellion!" Bartz stated happily.

"I thought you didn't want to get involved?" Sora challenged.

"Well..." the freelancer began, "I mean, we could get involved, but we'd be stuck in this triangle of worlds for a while. But that doesn't mean I LIKE what either of the empires are doing."

"So your claim of neutrality is only to preserve your freedom?" Cecil asked, looking from Faris to Bartz. "If the time came when you had to fight for said freedom, would you?"

"Well yeah, sure." Bartz replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "We're not completely heartless about something like this. If you want us to help, we'll help. Right, Faris?"

Faris shifted uncomfortably. "To tell ye true, Bartz, I'm not sure this is a good idea. Gettin' all entangled in another world's fight."

Sora rolled his good eye, scoffing, "That's what I've been saying from day one, but does anyone ever listen to me?"

"Enough, Sora." Vincent shot back, crimson eyes narrowed at him. "What we need to do now is to plan what exactly we're going to do. It appears that the battle in the skies has died down, for now. But our Gummi Ship is still on one of this world's moons, in desperate need of repair."

"Right." Kairi agreed. "And I don't think anyone here has the technology to get it fixed. Which means we need to get in touch with the Wild Rose somehow."

"Unfortunately, we split without taking a phone number last time, so that's not gonna work." the spiky haired teen sneered, turning away from the discussion. "And we didn't exactly part on the best of terms either. Thanks a lot for that, Vincent. Just for your information, we really appreciated that."

Vincent's ungauntleted hand made close acquaintance with his forehead at that comment. "What I said was meant to be a jump-start to some real action, a wake-up call. Not anything disparaging. But apparently everyone seems to have missed my meaning."

"Enough of this arguing!" Kairi cut in, looking desperately from Sora to Vincent. "Sora, you're not a child anymore. Stop acting like one. Same thing goes for you, Vincent! Honestly, you of all of us should know better!"

All the people in the room fell silent at that moment, and spent the next several moments looking awkwardly at each other.

"So, if we're to establish contact with this rebellion, this Wild Rose, we'll have to find some way to get their attention. Am I correct in that assumption?" Cecil spoke up thoughtfully.

"I'd say so." the gunman replied. "The question is how..."

"Well, wouldn't the easy way be to take out the imperials?" Bartz asked. "We're on a good world for doing that, since I don't think they've been here for long enough to be firmly entrenched."

"Bartz is right." Kairi added, realizing something. "The imperial presence here isn't as strong as it is on the other two worlds. I think the way we go about freeing this world is to take out their presence in some outlying villages and towns, and use those as outposts before storming the larger towns and kingdoms where the Empire now reigns."

Vincent and Cecil both looked more than slightly impressed by the young woman's grasp of strategy. However, a moment later, Vincent's expression darkened. "Smart thinking, but not quite there, Princess. That would be the best course of action if we had a) access to an army and b) months to carry out such a campaign. We have neither, unfortunately. If we're going to strike at all, it needs to be something decisive. A major blow."

The Lunarian's lips were pursed in thought after Vincent finished speaking. "I have an idea. Vincent's right. If we're going to strike, we need to do it hard and fast. We don't have time to wait. If we take out the heart of the imperial presence on this world, then the outliers will take care of themselves."

The princess's sapphire eyes flew wide, and she turned back to look at the silver-haired man. "You don't mean-!"

Cecil nodded. "Yes. I suggest we make an attack on Baron. It's time for me to reclaim the throne I lost."

.-.-.-.

"N-no, wait! Please! I just need a little more time! I promise I'll pay ya'll back! I promise!"

Dr. Facilier's pleas for help were sealed in the void of the underworld as his cheated 'friends' on the other side dragged him down with them.

Emperor Mateus sneered at this display. _Why I ever thought that pathetic attempt for a conjurer could be of any use to me, I shall never comprehend..._

"Harsh, Empy." Kefka teased from beside Mateus's throne. "With friends like that, who needs enemies, am I right? Ah, who am I kidding, none of us have dregs calling themselves friends anyway."

The blond emperor ignored the jester's comments, focusing on the Scrying Spell before him. It could give him no useful information his network of underworld informants hadn't already gleaned, but could still prove quite useful in examining the interferers' movements. When it became clear that nothing further was going to reveal itself to him, he dismissed the spell, and turned his attention to the clown chattering nonstop next to him.

"Calm yourself, Kefka. How I deal with those whom I choose to recruit is none of your concern." he scoffed, his eyes narrowing at the mocking smile he was met with.

"Speaking of recruiting, how's the whole 'get the broody demon guy to give in to the dark side' plan coming along?" Kefka wondered, bouncing around like a psychopathic child. "I just can't _wait_ to see all the blood and destruction he's gonna cause once he's finally working for us!"

"Corruption takes time, Kefka." Mateus answered curtly. "It requires patience, intelligence, and _tact_. None of which are known to be your strong suit. Your little artifact, your slave crown? It works temporarily, but damage it, and your control is faded. On that note, where is the esper girl? I thought you said you had all your forces looking for her?"

"She's slipping between our fingers for now, but she'll come home to papa soon enough." Kefka grumbled in response. "She always does."

"Hmph." Mateus harrumphed in reply. "Be that as it may, perhaps it is time you turn your focus elsewhere. We need Gestahl out of this equation. He was useful at first, but now the old fool is beginning to grate on my patience."

"Already in the works, Empy." Kefka replied, grinning. "Might take a while, but just say the word, and I'll get the plan started."

"Then do so." the blond emperor ordered, leaning back into his throne.

_All I need Golbez to do now is to keep his grip on Baron. But should that fail... I have a few other contingency plans in mind..._

.-.-.-.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa." Sora halted, shaking his head in disbelief. "You expect us... a group of, what, seven people to take out the imperials in the one city where their presence is bound to be the strongest?"

Silence was the only answer he received. Clearly the others were agreeing to this madness.

"In case you've forgotten, they have an entire freaking army barricading that kingdom!" the spiky haired teen shouted, looking desperately at everyone else, trying to get them to see reason. "Even if, and this is a huge if, we get past that and into the castle at Baron, we still have that Golbez guy and whoever else he may have working under him to deal with! Assuming our death isn't part of the plan, how is this going to work?"

"Sora's right." Kairi agreed. "This is looking like it's impossible. But we have to try it anyway! Even if we fail, it will draw enough attention from the rebellion so they can come assist us, or at least pick us up!"

"The princess has a point." Vincent replied calmly. "I'm not sure I like this plan any more than you do, Sora, however... it's the only plan we have right now. And speaking of plans, we're going to need one if we expect to have a prayer of this mission succeeding."

"Seriously." Bartz added. "I'm all for winging it, but this isn't exactly the kind of thing you can just do flying by the seat of your pants. We need a plan of action."

"I can come up with something." Sora volunteered. "I don't like this idea, but I can come up with a plan."

"Oh I know _your_ sort of plan." the gunman sneered. "It's the very sort of plan that would get us all killed. Go in, guns blazing, swords flashing, and pray we can fight through all the guards. I don't think so. This mission requires a kind of stealth and subtlety that you lack."

"Like you can come up with anything better, considering you're on the verge of losing it and becoming a stupid, raging beast..." Sora muttered, rolling his eyes.

Vincent's entire body tensed up with rage at Sora's last statement, but he forced himself to calm down. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and tersely replied, "As a matter of fact, I could come up with something better. I used to be an agent for the Turks. They were a black ops sort of group. I think I can put some of that training to use if I'm given enough information about the layout of the place we're trying to infiltrate."

"Sadly, I can only provide you with information that's seventeen years out of date." the silver-haired paladin replied, shaking his head. "But Baron is not a kingdom likely to have changed that much, so the map should remain much the same as it was."

"But that still doesn't give us all of the picture." Kairi stated, sounding more concerned. "Normally, if we were going to try to do this sort of thing, we'd know about the guards. How many there are, what shifts they come in... that sort of thing. At least, that's what I think."

"Unfortunately, we have neither the time, nor the resources to get that kind of intelligence, so as far as the number of guards goes, we will have to wing it. But hopefully, if Cecil's information proves accurate enough, we can get through without having to deal with too many of them." Vincent answered, looking at Kairi. He hadn't expected her to have that kind of strategic mind when this was her first look at a war.

"Lad, ye may not need a whole network." Faris stated, looking out the window, a smirk on her face. "One person could be all ye need."

Vincent's eyes followed the woman's gaze out the window, where a lone soldier was looking curiously at the Gummi Ship. Faris's meaning reached his mind, and a smirk spread on his face as well. He had an idea of how to get some more information.

Kairi and Edward's weak protests were met by a fluttering cape brushing past them as Vincent stepped outside the Gummi Ship. All those within the ship watched in a mix of interest and horror as the gunman accosted the soldier. The soldier looked panicked, and drew out his weapon, only for it to be shot out of his hands by Vincent's gun. Metal claws came down harshly on the soldier's face, leaving some deep wounds. Vincent gripped the shoulder just below the throat, and was shaking him violently while shouting some muffled inquiries. The soldier tried to respond, looking scared and confused. He cried out in pain, and Kairi gasped as she saw the soldier's wrist bent back at an awkward angle. Vincent appeared the be asking something again, even more fiercely than before this time, and received a long, tearful answer. This was apparently a satisfactory one, so Vincent dropped the man to the ground, where he curled up into a fetal position. The ex-Turk made like he was going back into the ship, then turned around, drew his gun, and fired at the quivering heap on the ground. A loud bang and a smoking gun later, the soldier lay still on the ground.

A tense silence filled the ship as Vincent stepped back into it. He wiped his gun and his gauntlet on his cape, and stated, far too nonchalantly, "Well, now we have some idea of what we'll need to do..."

Kairi's mouth worked silently for several moments before she finally found her voice, and shouted, "Why did you shoot him? Vincent, you don't just kill people like that! And I'm not sure I approve of how you got the information you're keeping locked up in your head right now!"

Vincent turned his crimson eyes to the Princess of Heart. "My methods are effective. I never said they were pleasant. I never said a thing about them. And as to why I shot him, he needed to die. You do realize, of course, that once he was finished being a nervous wreck, he was going to tell all his imperial allies exactly where we are."

The pragmatism of Vincent's actions struck Kairi's arguments down, while making her all the more angry at him. "So ending a human life is justified so long as he's just working for the enemy? Is that it?"

Vincent glared at her. "I don't recall you fussing so much when Sephiroth needed to be killed. He, too, was a 'human being'."

Kairi was dumbstruck. "Th-that was different. He forfeited his right to life after what he did. But that soldier did nothing to you! Nothing to anyone that we know of!"

Vincent rolled his eyes. He couldn't waste hours locked in a moral argument with the ever-pure princess. "Cecil, please, come with me to the next room. We have to get a plan together."

So much as Cecil wished he could tell the gunman to apologize to the girl and make up for the situation, he had no choice but to follow him out of the room. This was the only way to reclaim the kingdom he'd been forced to abandon so long ago.

The door shut behind the two of them, sealing their forming plans in with them.

.-.-.-.

And that's it for now. Sorry it took so long to get an update. I've been slacking on inspiration, but I'm back now. And I'll be trying to get some more updates out.


	10. Assault on Baron

**Disclaimer**: I claim no ownership of any of the characters, locations, and etcetera used in this fanfiction. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners. No infringement is intended by this work.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Nine- Assault on Baron

Kairi, Sora, and Vincent stood side by side, looking brazenly at the building mass of imperial forces before them. There were more than a few soldiers sitting in mechas they had only seen glimpses of on the World of Balance, the commander included. This was utterly insane, and they all knew it.

"Why don't you rebel scum just submit quietly, and end this pathetic excuse for an invasion, hm?" the commander asked, his voice distorted by the machinery around him.

Vincent's mouth twitched into a small smirk, and he levelled Cerberus at the commander, firing once. The bullet bounced harmlessly off the man's armored shoulders, and into the earth.

"Hah!" the commander taunted, levelling his own weapons at the trio standing before him. "Was that it? Was that your big plan?"

Kairi and Sora looked equally nervous and confused. They thought Vincent knew what he wes doing.

"No." Vincent replied, deadpan as ever. "This was."

And with the touch of a button on what seemed to be a detonator held in his gauntleted hand, all hell broke loose.

The commander and all his men panicked appropriately as they realized the ground beneath them was utterly crumbling. Not just there, but all along the perimeter of Baron city, the walls and ground were collapsing, dragging imperial soldiers down into the depths of the earth to be crushed by the falling rocks and debris.

"...what the hell just happened?" Sora asked, half confused and half annoyed.

Vincent turned back to face the two teens, who looked at him with that same mix of anger and confusion. "Simply enough, phase one of the plan. Now, if everything's gone correctly, Edward and Cecil should be here about-"

"We're here." Cecil finished the statement, pulling an unconscious Edward behind him. He laid the bard down on the ground.

"The Devil's Pathway you mentioned?" Vincent asked curtly.

"Completely sealed off. No reinforcements from Mysidia can get in, and none of the empire's soldiers can get out, save by airship." the paladin replied breathlessly. "Edward was struck by a piece of falling debris from the passageway as we made our escape. He took a fair blow to the head, but appears to be unharmed."

"Right." Vincent nodded. "I'll call for Bartz to come get him. He'll also make a great decoy if anyone tries fleeing using the skies, as I'm certain they've all been told by Golbez and Mateus what your fighter looks like, Cecil."

"Indeed." Cecil answered.

"So now what?" Kairi asked. "We've managed to trap them. So now what?"

"Isn't it obvious? We get in there and start kicking imperial soldier ass!" Sora shouted, holding his Keyblade in an attack position.

"Sora is, for the most part, correct." Vincent stated, keeping his cool as he looked the scarred teen in the eye. "However, only Sora and myself are to start engaging the Imperials directly. We're the ones who have the highest chance of survival. But if we're to win this, we need a few of their mechas destroyed or in our possession."

"So you want Cecil and myself to find where these mechas, these Magitek Armors are stored, and blow them up or hijack them?"

"Yes." the gunman replied. "Sora and I will stay here by Edward's side until Bartz arrives to transport him. After that, we will begin our assault. Oh, and Cecil?"

"Yes?" the paladin asked. He was met with silence and having something thrown at him as a response. He held in his hand a yellowish orb, from which he could sense a sort of power. "What's this?"

"It's what people on my world need to utilize magic on my homeworld. It will grant you a spell you might not have access to if you use it properly." Vincent answered. "This is a Manipulate materia. Ordinarily, when used on monsters, it lets you control their actions to a vague extent. It's effects on humans are... a little more tricky, but the basics remain the same- until such time as you remove the spell, whoever it was cast on will obey your will. That would come in handy for taking care of a few of the soldiers using the Magitek Armor."

"Vincent, you can't honestly be suggesting this tactic, can you?" Kairi shouted, enraged. "This is the sort of thing the Empire does! This is- this is removing someone's free will! It's- It's- immoral!"

"Princess..." Cecil began, placing a calming hand on her shoulder, "I do not relish this thought any more than you do. Vincent, are you certain there is no other way?"

"You could kill them all." Vincent replied, ever the pragmatist. "I offered this, actually, as a way the princess could avoid having to kill anyone. But apparently even mercy will not satisfy her."

Cecil grimaced. Now he was placed in an extremely awkward position. Claiming this, the way Kairi was, as something utterly immoral would in effect be claiming it would be better for the imperial soldiers to die than to force them to do something against their will. Yet, he couldn't justify this act, really, through any means, except to stop the fighting. Still, one thought haunted his mind, preventing him from saying that murder was the better option.

"Some of those soldiers under the empire... may be my people." he stated, more to himself than anyone else. "Men and women forced to do this against their will by an empire which toppled even this mighty kingdom. My friends, my men... their families... knowing this, I... I can't bring myself to say killing them is the better option. I'll use this power you've given me, but only this once."

Vincent nodded. "Very well. I'll be expecting this materia back at the end of this battle. If all goes as planned, this should be a great success, one that will draw the Wild Rose to us."

"Right." Kairi agreed. She was reluctant to follow this plan, but they had no choice. And at least this way, they could avoid the largest portion of bloodshed.

.-.-.-.

"So, the Keyblade Masters and their entourage believe they stand a chance against the mightiest imperial stronghold on the Blue Planet? How very amusing." Mateus commented, looking down at his informant.

"My lord, should I return to Baron?" the hulking armored figure standing next to him asked. "It would be inconvenient if this stronghold fell into rebel hands."

"Hmmm..." the blond emperor murmured, considering the situation for a long moment. It would indeed be quite a setback, were Baron overtaken, however, it would not strike a fatal blow. Besides, Kefka was working on something that would well and truly cripple the abilities of the Blue Planet to fight back, so even if the rebels won this fight by some miracle, they would not do so again.

"No." he finally stated.

"My lord-!" Golbez protested.

"Never mind them, Golbez. Insects may swarm, but they are insects, nonetheless. Even if they overrun this city, they will be squashed like the bugs they are in due time." he stated, keeping an air of arrogance about him. "Besides, I'm quite interested in how this little scheme of theirs fares."

.-.-.-.

"Faris'll take good care of the guy. She took some levels as a White Mage." Bartz reassured Vincent and Sora, having loaded the unconscious Edward into his fighter. "I'll report back to you when he's safely aboard the ship, and everything's all set up in the skies."

"Right. Get going, then. I'd prefer to avoid any unnecessary casualties if I can help it." the gunman ordered curtly.

The freelancer mock-saluted his 'superior', leaped into the fighter, and sped off towards Faris's flagship.

"After the whole torturing and murdering an imperial for information stunt you pulled last night, you have the guts to say you'd 'like to avoid any unnecessary casualties'? That kind of hypocrisy makes me want to puke." Sora stated bitterly, glaring at Vincent.

The gunman's only response was to smirk wryly. "A hypocrite calling another hypocrite on his own hypocrisy. There's something you don't see all the time."

"This isn't the time to play word games!" Sora shot back fiercely.

"Really? I was enjoying our witty repartee." Vincent retorted, his voice dripping with venom.

The soldiers of the empire were beginning to surround them. Guns were drawn and aimed for the two seemingly defenseless men. Vincent's twisted smile grew a few molars while Sora's glare intensified before they both charged in opposite directions towards the soldiers surrounding them.

Sora chopped the heads off of the first three soldiers fighting him before wheeling around and stabbing Oblivion, his Keyblade of choice, through the backs of two more. Vincent ran with inhuman speed, dodging past the arrows, magic, and in some cases, bullets, fired at him, returning the incoming fire with deadly accurate gunplay of his own. The Keyblade Master could feel his frustration building as three more soldiers appeared in his face each time he cut one down. He thought Vincent had a more well-thought out plan, something to avoid the guards, not one that would force everyone to fight them.

_**Yes... Let that frustration grow! Your anger, your despair, they feed me!**_

Sora jolted backward at hearing the same dark voice chuckling in the back of his mind that he had heard on Radiant Garden when Vincent lost control, his unscarred eye widened in fear. Just how close was he to surrendering to Anti-Form again? His momentary shock was enough to allow a Magitek Armor's Fire Beam to shave past him, badly burning the arm holding Oblivion. Sora dropped the blade involuntarily after that, clutching the burned limb as he collapsed to his knees, and was surrounded by soldiers. He could feel the darkness of his anti creeping up in his mind, trying to take over him, to make sure he lived through this, but he was trying desperately to fight it off.

_Roxas... Please... I know you're in there somewhere. You have to help me! If you help me out, the darkness won't bother me for a while, so please... Please... Help me!_

Hearing no response from his Nobody, Sora looked up into the faces of the soldiers above him with their guns trained on him. His thoughts jumped to one last mental cry of desparation as the leader cocked his gun at Sora's head, preparing to fire.

_Riku, help!_

Vincent, meanwhile, had allowed his body to go into autopilot as he fought off the soldiers troubling him. All they needed to do was hold them off until Cecil and Kairi managed to control all the Magitek Armors. Once they had those, this battle could be fought on more equal terms. However, he stopped in his tracks after noticing the distinctly animalistic posture he had taken on. He was poised in front of a faceless mook, his gauntleted hand millimeters from the soldier's armored chest. Had he not stopped himself, he would have unconsciously ripped the man's heart from his chest. Before, even while zoning out, his body had always reverted to basic Turk training- never to something Chaos would do on instinct. He felt pain rip through his torso as the soldier in front of him took advantage of the opportunity and fired on him. Even at point-blank range, the bullet didn't have enough momentum for total penetration, and Vincent could feel it getting stuck somewhere just below his heart.

And then the pain hit. So much as he ached when transforming into Chaos, this hurt far, far worse. He could feel the bullet lodged inside him moving with each frantic beat of his heart- and even worse, with Chaos's natural healing abilities, feel it becoming encapsulated within him. The soldier was visibly shaking- or was that just Vincent's vision swimming? He could hear Hojo somewhere above his head, laughing at him, mocking him, grandstanding as the pain drew him away from consciousness...

_Wait, what?_

The pain of this wound was so reminiscent of the last that he found himself mentally regressing to that time- a time before he became a monster, a time when his mortality was still certain. And now, it seemed, he was in danger of losing his life once more.

_Well... I have wanted this release for quite some time. So, go on, faceless soldier, complete your duty in the name of the Empire..._

And then, through the cacophony of the jumbling thoughts in his head and the outside battle, Cecil's voice rang out over the city of Baron.

.-.-.-.

Cecil and Kairi found the place where the Magitek Armors were stored fairly quickly, by heading the direction from which some of the reinforcements against Vincent and Sora came. The Princess of Heart looked concernedly at the older paladin, who seemed quite wary of using the materia Vincent had given to him. Cecil shook his head as if to clear it, and when he looked ahead, his eyes showed steely determination.

"Hey! You! You can't come in here!" a guard shouted at him, leveling his gun at the older man's head.

"You will let us pass." Cecil commanded gently but firmly, the orb in his hand glowing at the sound of it. There was a moment's glow and resistance from the body of the guard, but he soon relaxed, and saluted the pair of them.

"Of course, sir. Right away." the soldier replied, keeping his arm up in a salute as Cecil and Kairi walked past him.

"Kairi." the paladin murmured, barely inclining his head to the young woman. "Do you know how to use a Sleep spell?"

"The basics of it." Kairi replied. "Why do you- Oh! You want me to put the guards you've manipulated to sleep behind us so that they won't chase after us when the spell fades!"

Cecil nodded almost imperceptibly, looking warily at the soldiers approaching him, weapons raised. "I'll need you to get to this almost immediately after I say my next command."

"Right." Kairi nodded, determination starting to chase away her unease.

The paladin looked over the group surrounding him as he spoke the next order. "Soldiers of the fallen Baron, servants of the empire, all of you, heed my words! You are to drop your weapons, abandon your Magitek Armor Units, and assemble before me. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" a chorus of strangely familiar voices answered before doing as their commander bade them.

It was then that Cecil began to realize just how many people among the guards they faced here were his own people, forced into servitude by Palamecia and Gestahl's iron grip. Once the whole group, a platoon of about thirty, assembled before him, Cecil nodded to Kairi, who closed her eyes as if in deep concentration. Mere moments later, the knight could see all of the soldiers before him collapsing to the ground, in quite a deep sleep.

"Well... now that we have the Magitek Armor units in our possession, now what?" the princess wondered. "Do we steal them and enter the fray ourselves, or hold out here until the Wild Rose comes, and lend them this weaponry?"

"Your second suggestion seems to be the best idea, Princess. However, we must make our presence known to the others still fighting the battle outside." Cecil mused, looking over the mechas. Then, he noticed one that was slightly different than all the others sitting near the exit. The different design seemed to be indicative of the leader's craft, which should have a communicator that would resound over the entire city if need be.

"Princess, I have an idea. Stand guard by the entrance. This could get nasty in a few minutes. But these people deserve to know that their proper ruler has returned to his proper place. If nothing else, it will give hope to those standing idly by, perhaps enough to motivate them to fight back." the paladin stated, climbing into the commander's Magitek Armor. The controls appeared very similar to a Gummi Ship's, so he was easily able to locate the communicator he would need.

He took a deep breath to prepare himself for this momentous speech, and flicked the mass-communication switch on.

"Citizens of Baron, those crushed beneath the heel of the Empire, and all you who can hear my voice, heed me! I am Cecil Harvey, paladin and rightful heir to the throne of Baron! After my long absence, I have finally returned, and I swear I will fight to set right was was wronged in my absence! Now, as your returned ruler, I urge you, all of who, who feel as though you have been given no other choice but to serve Mateus, Gestahl, and Golbez's twisted desires to fight! Fight back against the power that tries to steal away your freedom and your home! Fight for a return to the peaceful days of yore! Fight in the name of your returned ruler! I, Cecil Harvey, Tenth King of Baron, command you, fight against this force which has you at its beck and call, fight once more for your homeland!"

As Cecil's oration went on, Kairi found herself becoming more and more in awe. When she met him, the man hadn't seemed all that much like a ruler of a nation. But now, as he addressed the members of his nation forced into servitude, she could see a regal passion flaring within him. He radiated majesty, and seemed every inch a proper king.

Cecil started in surprise when the communicator activated again, this time transmitting a message from a man out on the battle field.

"Your Majesty, I have been waiting many long years for your return. Those of us who are of this planet can easily outnumber those whose loyalty is only to the Empire. Thus, I suggest we negotiate a ceasefire for the moment, until we figure out what is to be done with those still clinging to the Empire's heels." the apparent commander stated.

"Understood. I will meet you in the bunker where the Magitek Armor is being kept." the king said. Once the communicator was completely offline, he sank back into his seat with a long, low sigh of relief. "Thank the gods..."

"A ceasefire, just from that speech? Cecil that was amazing!" Kairi shouted, smiling. "This means no more people will have to die here!"

"Indeed." Cecil replied, looking the princess directly in her eyes. "For a moment I feared this speech would not work, and we would instead be ordered to kill every person in Baron..."

Kairi tensed unnaturally after the paladin's last statement, her eyes flying wide. She backed up a few steps, hugging herself, shaking in abject terror. "N-no... why would you... order me to-? I don't want-! Don't force me to-!"

"Princess?" Cecil asked, now fully on alert and highly concerned.

The saddened sheen in the girl's eyes deadened, and she responded in a monotone, "I understand. We have to get rid of everyone in Baron."

Cecil's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach as he looked down towards his hand, and realized he was still clutching the bright yellow orb that Vincent had given him earlier.

.-.-.-.

Well, clearly this plan is not going according to plan anymore. We'll see how this affects everything in the next chapter.


	11. One Hell of a Show, One Hell of a Mess

**Disclaimer**: I claim no ownership of any of the characters, locations, and etcetera used in this fanfiction. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners. No infringement is intended by this work.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Ten- One Hell of a Show, One Hell of a Mess

Vincent was surprised, to say the least, when Kairi came running out into the middle of the battlefield, where he was having an extremely terse conversation with the supposedly surrendering commander of the Imperial Guard stationed in Baron. Said surprise only grew when, mere moments later, she pulled out her Keyblade, and proceeded to stab the commander right through the heart. The commander was dead before he hit the ground. There was a moment of silence, and then, pandemonium broke loose. The citizens of Baron, who had just been assured they wouldn't be harmed, became infuriated, drawing their weapons and opening fire towards Sora, Kairi, and Vincent. The princess threw up a Reflega spell, and mercilessly cut down the one who opened fire. The gunman, desparate to figure out what the hell had just happened, ran for cover. No sooner had he reached that cover than he heard his communicator going off, registering a signal from one of the Magitek Armors they had captured.

"Cecil, what the hell is going on?" Vincent raged, his fury growing by the moment. "I thought you and Kairi were the ones responsible for garnering the ceasefire!"

_"F-forgive me..."_ Cecil replied. Vincent couldn't quite tell through the static, but it sounded like the paladin was weeping. _"I didn't mean to... I tried to stop her..."_

"What do you mean 'you tried to stop her'? Cecil, what the hell just happened?"

_"The orb... Its magic... I didn't... But I couldn't... I'm sorry..."_

And then the terrible realization hit. "Cecil, do you mean to tell me that you used the Manipulate materia I gave you and ordered Kairi to fight?"

_"No! I didn't... I didn't mean to. I mentioned our fortune in being able to avoid having to slaughter everyone in Baron, but... The orb... the spell... it still activated, and..."_

Vincent's gauntleted hand met his forehead with a sigh of exasperation, causing him a fair amount of pain. "So, to clarify, Kairi has been given inexorable orders to slaughter every single person in this town, whether enemy, civilian, or ally? Orders she cannot disobey and you cannot undo?"

_"Yes... C-can... can you undo them?"_

"No." Vincent answered, his voice clipped. "Only the one who gave the initial orders can undo them, and it seems you've failed at that... Then we have only one option. Stay right there. I'm coming to your position."

He put away the communicator, and cast a glance at the battlefield. Sora was back to his full strength, and was using said strength to kill all those in his way as he tried desperately to reach Kairi, who was now using her not inconsiderable prowess with magic to destroy everyone in her way. Vincent's crimson eyes closed as he grimaced. He should have known there was no way this plan could end but in tragedy. The fighting would now be interminable, and the Wild Rose was nowhere in sight.

_No matter..._ he thought, shaking his head. _All I can do now is try to keep the fallout from this screw-up under control... Damn it all, Cecil, why didn't you drop the damn materia after the last of the guards was taken care of?_

As his thoughts descended into a cacophony to match the outward battle, Vincent ran as fast as he could, dodging past bullets fired at him, and ducking beneath the powerful blasts of Magitek Armor fire. When he finally reached the bunker where the Armors were stored, he dashed inside, sealing the entrance tightly behind him. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he caught the scent of burnt flesh, which gave him a fair idea of the horror that would meet his eyes once he turned around to see it.

Bodies of Imperial Soldiers were everywhere, bloodied and unconscious, the largest pile of which was set aflame, causing a sick and heady scent to fill the air, like the foul breath of Hell itself. A few of the soldiers still alive on the ground were writhing as they burned to death. Unable to properly move, but able to feel the pain as they burned to death, they fit in with this place's now hellish atmosphere. Eyes stinging from the smoke, Vincent felt something wet trickle down his face. Whether these were tears or a drip of blood from a dead man above his head he had no time to investigate, for he had finally found Cecil.

The white and silver paladin stuck out like a sore thumb against his dark surroundings, though the ash and stench of the place were beginning to tint the heavenly warrior a hellish shade. He was lying on the ground, conscious, but unable to move, as both his legs were slashed open, and bleeding heavily onto the floor. If he didn't get proper attention from a healer soon, he would die from loss of blood.

"What happened to you?" Vincent asked, kneeling by the fallen man's side.

"I... tried to stop her." Cecil coughed. "I told her to... disregard that order. But... she..."

"She maimed you because you were standing in her way." Vincent finished, shaking his head. "Cecil, how could you make such a foolish mistake?"

"How was I to know the spell was still active...?" Cecil asked, trailing off into a coughing fit that sounded like he was attempting to remove his own lungs. "I- I'm sorry..."

Vincent handed the man the one healing potion he had. "Here. Take it. It should help ease the pain and keep you alive until help arrives... If it ever arrives..."

"What are you going to do?" Cecil asked weakly, gratefully accepting the potion he was given.

Vincent sighed heavily. "Thanks to this situation arising, I have to do what I was ordered to once, only a short while ago. Do something that made me come back to myself before. Something I couldn't bring myself to see through."

This time, he was certain the moisture on his face was his tears as he gravely stated, "I have to kill Princess Kairi."

.-.-.-.

To say that Golbez was in a foul temperament after having heard of the ceasefire orders from his own troops would be an utter understatement. He spent the next several minutes pacing angrily across Emperor Mateus's throne room, while the aformentioned ruler looked on the scene with an amused disinterest. A single soldier came into the room, and said, "Y-Your Majesties?"

"WHAT NOW?" Golbez raged, turning back to face the faceless soldier, electricity crackling between his fingers.

The soldier visibly shrank back. "S-sir, th-the rebels have attacked our troops during the ceasefire. Our troops are fighting against the few rebel insurgents with all of their strength. We'll be able to beat them back, sir!"

Golbez was surprised for an instant, but recovered very quickly. "Send for more reinforcements. I want to be sure they are all crushed into the dirt right here and now."

After the soldier left, Emperor Mateus let a twisted smirk spread on his face, and a small chuckle escape his lips. That chuckle soon turned into a full on laugh, one without mirth, but rather, with triumph. "With their own pathetic struggles, they have harmed support for their own resistance. They had their enemies cornered, surrendering without a fight, and what do they do? Try to slaughter them wholesale. Any citizens of the Empire who even dreamed of supporting them before will withdraw their opinions now, after seeing this utter disaster! All that is left is to let this battle run its proper course, and stamp out the ones who began it. Isn't that right, Golbez?"

"Yes, my Lord." Golbez answered, his voice a monotone. "Their rebellion will be dust."

.-.-.-.

Kairi had managed to steal a Magitek Armor from one of the Imperials she had killed earlier, and was using its onboard weapons to slaughter hundreds of Baron citizens, be they soldier or civilian. She had to kill them all. They all had to die! She pressed the button on the Fire Beam Cannon once more, and blasted through a hundred walls.

She was less pleased with the situation when, out of nowhere, a Thunder Beam crashed into her Magitek Armor, utterly disabling its movement.

"How dare you fire on me?" she shrieked through the communicator. "I am Princess Kairi of Radiant Garden, and I-!"

The Magitek Armor disintegrated beneath her, and she fell unceremoniously to the ground. She drew her Keyblade, and began looking desparately for more Baronians to slaughter. She turned back to face the one who had disabled her craft, and found herself face-to-face with Vincent.

"Oh! Vincent, it's you!" Kairi shouted, visibly relieved. "Hey, maybe once this battle is over, we can help fix the damage and rebuild Baron! Wait... people will still live in Baron, won't they...?"

"Right. Rebuilding." Vincent stated, his face unreadable. "There will be a lot of rebuilding necessary after this fight."

He pulled out Cerberus, and levelled it at Kairi's head, causing her eyes to widen in fear.

"Forgive me... Princess..." Vincent whispered, barely audible above the fighting.

A flash of light and a gunshot later, Princess Kairi felt herself fall to the ground.

_Vincent-? Why did you..?_

.-.-.-.

Vincent's hands had been shaking as he delivered the final blow. He hadn't intended for it to come to this. He'd never expected something like this to happen. But he was left with no choice.

He felt a sharp stab of pain near his heart as the young woman fell to the ground. Perhaps it was simply psychosomatic of the more emotional trauma he was facing in this act. Or, perhaps it was a result of the bullet still encapsulated within his body from where he had been shot earlier. He lowered Cerberus, and dropped it to the ground.

_I'm so sorry, Princess. I wanted to help you... but in the end, all I can do is destroy..._

He was startled out of his train of thought mere moments later as an all-too-familiar figure came charging towards him, letting out a battle cry of extreme rage and sorrow.

.-.-.-.

From the moment the fighting started up again, Sora knew he had to reach Kairi. He had to get to her, to protect her, to stop her from getting hurt.

"Out of my way!" he snarled viciously at the soldiers blocking his path.

He stabbed Oblivion through one man's torso, then used it to cut off another's head. It didn't matter what became of those in his way- all that mattered was Kairi's safety.

Finally, there was a lull in the battle, where Sora could run up to where he saw Kairi standing, Keyblade out. Vincent stood before her, gun drawn. And then, a flash of gunpowder later, Kairi was falling to the ground.

It wasn't right, it didn't make any sense! Kairi was just fine one second, but now she was falling down, and it looked like she was bleeding really badly from her chest! No... no, this couldn't be right! Kairi wasn't falling down, she couldn't be, it wasn't possible! The auburn hair that flowed past her wide sapphire eyes were replaced in a flash by ashen silver and aquamarine. Riku was falling, had fallen next to Kairi. Both were improbably, impossible bleeding and broken before their assailants, it couldn't be happening, he had to be dreaming, it just couldn't-! Not again! Not like this!

_Can't-!_

_Not-!_

Sora's mind was on total shutdown. Rage penetrated to the very core of his being. He was nothing but the rage filling his body, they were one, the same. He would do anything, everything in his power to make the ones who destroyed his loved ones pay. Hatred was his obsession, and he had his first target in his sights. Egged on by a deep, dark desire to avenge the fallen, and by the sadistic laughter of the darkness in his heart, he charged, his vocal chords aching from the strain of the one word he was capable of forming at this point. One long, painful screech of denial.

Oblivion clashed with golden gauntlet time and time again as one-word epithets began entering Sora's mind. How many were merely thought and how many were actually screamed aloud, he did not know. All he knew was that he was going to make Vincent suffer.

_Bastard! Murderer! Monster! How could you? She never- And you just- DIE!_

The darkness pooled around him, and he no longer cared. He would use whatever means were necessary to extract his vengeance. As his posture and attacks lost their civilization, so did those of his opponent, until each was as animalistic as the other. Sora egged on into beasthood by his rage, and Vincent in defense of his own life.

And then, suddenly, he blacked out. He had no knowledge of where he was, who he was, or if he even existed anymore. There was nothing left for him to live for... Nothing...

When he finally came to himself, he was standing back on the islet where he and his friends always used to play. The structures still stood, and Riku stood by his side, looking out over the ocean, the way they were before Mickey's letter ever arrived. Only, Riku looked like he did when he was a child. Suddenly, Sora himself felt much shorter, and he knew he was back to being a child with Riku.

"Someday... Someday, Sora, I'm going to get off this island!" Riku stated, looking determinedly ahead.

"Right!" Sora giggled. "We'll find a way! Together! Won't we, Riku?"

Riku's smile turned to more of a concerned frown as he looked at Sora's face. He pointed towards him, and asked, "Sora, are you okay? You're-!"

Sora put a hand to his left eye, and withdrew it, feeling moisture dripping down his cheek. But instead of the phantom tear of yesteryear he expected to see, his eyes were met with blood. Riku's position seemed oddly skewed now, and Sora screamed in horror when he realized why. His eye, his left eye was gone, ripped out of his head, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole where it had been.

The child form of Riku turned to face him, a silver wing now attatched to his back, and a cruel smirk on his face. Those eyes were not his- they were the catlike slits of his father.

"Sora, what's wrong?" Riku's childlike form asked, all innocence, sounding wrong with his current appearance.

Sora backed up, and started running for all he was worth. The island was crumbling into flames and ruin behind him, the empty void only filling with the tears still flowing down his childish face. Kairi, as she looked when she first came to the islands, reached out for him, standing in his way, but then, suddenly, she fell, bullet holes appearing in her chest, sending her to the ground. Riku's child form lay still to his side, having been pierced through by the Masamune blade, still impaled in the sand beside him. Sephiroth smirked at Sora for only a moment, gripping his blade, before fading into nothingness and feathers. All his childhood friends lie dead as children around him, corpses burnt and decaying from the flames. He ran as fast as he could towards a figure in black. Tall, looming, blonde hair spiking up. His child self clung to his father's pants leg, begging for protection, only to have his support vanish from beside him as Cloud walked off into the distance.

"DAD!" he cried out, whimpering and desperately reaching for the fast-receding figure.

He was met with his face in the sand for his troubles. The sand hardened into glass, and he found himself, still in child form, standing upon a stained glass window. He looked out across the distance and saw two figures conversing with one another. One looked exactly like him in his current appearance- the other looked like Roxas. But there was something decidedly off about both of them.

"You're fighting a losing battle, Ventus." Sora's mirror image taunted. "Such a double-edged sword, this friendship you cling to as your power. Break it, bury it, and it becomes a lure to the darkness."

"He won't give in!" Ventus, the Roxas lookalike shot back. "He can't. He's not like you, Vanitas. He's not weak!"

"Without the support of his friends, he is but one person trying to hold back a veritable sea of his own despair." Vanitas replied, mocking. "You're as good as gone. As his darkness grows stronger, so do I."

Suddenly, Anti-Sora sprang up before Sora himself, causing him to shriek with fright. He tried to run, but there was nowhere for him to go. Anti-Sora pounced on him, drowning him, pulling him down into darkness. And Sora couldn't even fight anymore. There wasn't a point.

_"Giving up already? C'mon, Sora! I thought you were stronger than that!"_

The impossibly familiar voice rang through the boy's head, causing him to snap violently awake. For a brief moment, he imagined he saw Riku looming concernedly above him, but a blink later, the familiar face transformed into Cecil's.

"You're awake? Oh thank the gods..." Cecil murmured, sinking back into his chair in relief.

Sora was confused. "Where-?"

"We're back in Castle Altair. The Wild Rose came to our rescue after everything started going towards the inferno. Their White Mages have been looking after all of us nonstop for the past three days. Bartz had some extremely bad stab wounds from a lance, but he's recovering. They pulled the bullet from Vincent's chest, so he's in better condition. My legs are almost fully healed, and Edward's been his usual self- cowering in a corner. Faris transported us all here once enough members of the Wild Rose showed up to make it feasible to leave." Cecil replied.

Sora tried sitting up, and was met with pain for his efforts. His ribcage was bandaged up tight. "Wh-where's-? Where's Kairi? Is she okay? Did she get hurt when the Empire attacked us after the fake ceasefire?"

Cecil looked visibly uncomfortable. "Sora... don't you know? D-don't you remember?"

"I- I remember Vincent aiming a gun at her, and-" Sora cut himself off. "Is Kairi all right? Did Vincent hurt her?"

"Sora..." Cecil began gingerly, unsure of how best to put what he needed to say, "Kairi is... gone."

Sora's heart skipped a beat. "G-gone? What do you mean, gone?"

Cecil sighed. "We don't know... We don't know where she is or what's become of her. But... Vincent was successful in his mission... I don't think we'll see her again..."

"Cecil, what the hell are you talking about?" Sora raged, his torso screaming in protest to his sudden movements. "WHERE IS KAIRI?"

Tears spilled from the corner of Cecil's eyes. "I'm... I'm so sorry... It's all my fault. I didn't... I didn't mean for it to happen, but..."

The pale blue eyes met Sora's own, shining with tears as Cecil dealt the final blow. "Vincent had no choice but to shoot Princess Kairi. She's dead, and we can't even find her body..."

.-.-.-.

And that is where it will end for now. We'll be entering a new story arc next chapter. Hope you guys enjoy!


	12. Working Through the Aftermath

**Disclaimer**: I claim no ownership of any of the characters, locations, and etcetera used in this fanfiction. All copyrights belong to their respective copyright owners. No infringement is intended by this work.

.-.-.-.

Chapter Eleven- Working Through the Aftermath

When the final blow came down on his heart, it took all of Sora's restraint not to go charging after Vincent, Cecil, everyone who was responsible for what had happened to Kairi. He listened with gritted teeth to the paladin's account of what had happened. By the time his sad tale had reached its end, his nails were biting into his gloved hands, his whole body shaking with rage. One thought permeated his mind.

"I'm going to kill him..." Sora growled, his teeth bared. "I'm going to kill him, and I have half a mind to kill _you_ too!"

"I understand your grief." Cecil stated consolingly. "But before that, could you please just listen to me for but a moment? I never intended for anything to happen to the Princess. Nor did Vincent."

"Intentions don't matter." Sora spat, remembering gentle Kairi's pure ideals. "Only actions and results. You 'never intended' this to happen, but nonetheless, it did. And someone has to take the fall for it. Someone is to blame. Someone has to pay."

"When didja get into _that_ kinda thinking, Sora?" a high pitched voice asked.

Sora's good eye narrowed to a slit as the very last person he wanted to enter the room at this moment stepped inside, looking at him with an odd mix of concern and confusion.

Cecil inclined his head in a show of respect. "Your Majesty."

King Mickey leapt up on the cot where Sora was sitting, and stood next to the teen. Now that both got a good look at the other for the first time in a while, each could see the damage the other had sustained. Mickey's ever cheery disposition had shifted for a more melancholy look, though he still kept his basic happiness about him. His left ear was bandaged heavily, and looked like it was still bleeding from a recent wound. His eyes were more somber than usual, but he still had his old pep.

"Oh dear. Looks like Vincent really did a number on ya out there..." Mickey stated, shaking his head sadly. "Though he's in worse shape than you are right now."

"Wait... 'did a number on me'?" Sora asked, confused and angry. "What are you talking about?"

Mickey sighed. "So Master Yen Sid was right... I really hoped not, but it looks like, as usual, he's right... Sora, ya can't remember what happened at all?"

Sora shook his head. "No... I just thought I passed out after Kairi..."

"Well... Sora, you... Hmmm... How should I put this...?" Mickey hemmed and hawed to himself.

"Neither you nor Vincent has any memory of the injuries you sustained after Kairi's death." a new voice cut in. Sora looked away from King Mickey to find Firion entering the room. "But I do. I was the one who rendered the both of you unconscious."

Sora's jaw dropped before coming back in a savage growl. "Why were you shooting at people on your own side?"

"Neither of you were on anyone's side at that moment." Firion answered simply. "You'd both gone completely berserk!"

"...berserk?" the teen deadpanned. "I had a good excuse to be more than a little pissed off! I'd just seen Vincent shoot my-!"

He cut himself off. He still wasn't sure exactly what he should call Kairi. A friend? Yes, but her passing hurt him as much or more than Riku's. A lover? Too passionate, too mature. A girlfriend? Too juvenile. Soul mate? Gag. Too romantic.

In the self-inflicted silence, Mickey spoke up. "Sora, he doesn't mean berserk in the usual sense of the word. He means really, completely berserk. That wasn't Vincent who gave you those injuries."

The implications behind the mouse king's last statement ground Sora's own internal processes to a halt. "Wait. You mean... I was up against Chaos? No way! I'd remember something like that!"

"Well, there's the problem, Sora." Mickey replied, a hand on his hip. "You'd remember if it was really you going up against him. But if you weren't yourself at the time..."

"Whoawhoawhoa." Sora cut the king off, waving his hands in a 'let's not be hasty' gesture. "Not me? Who else would I be if not me?"

"Sora..." Mickey began hesitantly, "Have ya noticed anything? Anything odd about your heart? The balance of it? Has the darkness been messing with ya at all?"

Sora's defiant glare shifted to a darkly pensieve look as the king spoke. Fear was starting to cut into his rage, settling in the very marrow of his bones. "W-wait... You mean... I was in Anti-Form fighting Vincent? But I've never lost my memories in Anti-Form before! And these wounds shouldn't be here if that was the case! Anti-Form's made of darkness, bullets shouldn't be able to harm it, since it doesn't have a real body!"

"Therein lies the most disconcerting problem." the king answered sadly. "The only reason Anti-Form would have its own body was if it was beginning to gain full control of yours. But it's not strong enough to do this on its own. Someone- or something- is helping it out... And it's not someone you can fight, Sora. Ya see... you've got a lot more people hiding in your heart than you realize..."

"I don't care about that." Sora cut Mickey off, glaring fiercely at him. "We can talk about this later. I want to know what happened at Baron. Why can't they find Kairi?"

"Well, despite the general disaster the actions of your crack team caused, you were extremely beneficial to the rebellion's cause. For that, the Wild Rose thanks you." Firion said, smiling at Sora. "With your actions, we were able to free Baron from the clutches of the Empire."

"Okay, so the Empire's presence on the Blue Planet is severely weakened, and Cecil gets his kingdom back, big whoop." the teen replied snarkily. "What happened to everyone else?"

"Your Mime companion... Bartz, was it? He bears some nasty stab injuries from a lance. Judging by the depth of the wounds, I'd say his assailant approached him from more than twenty feet above his head." Firion stated.

Cecil's head turned downwards at that statement. "Kain... why do you always fight against me...?"

"The captain, Faris, is uninjured." Firion reported. "The bard, Edward, is recovering from his head injury, but nothing worse than that."

"And Kairi?" Sora demanded, nostrils flaring.

The rebel general backed down, a worried look on his face. "We couldn't find her body. And from the sound of things, even if we could, there's nothing much we can do. Even more pressing: Princess Hilda has gone missing as well. I've had to take over this faction of the resistance in her absence."

Sora turned his glare towards the bedsheets. So much as he longed to gain his vengeance for Kairi's death, he'd have to wait until his injuries were fully recovered. Until then, all he could do was sit there and stew until finally he was ready to burst.

.-.-.-.

"MERCYYYYYY!" a voice cried out, echoing from within the Palamecian royal chambers.

The lightning firing from Golbez's fingers came to an abrupt halt, and the soldier lay burnt to a crisp before him.

"Calm yourself, Golbez." the Emperor sneered, lounging in his throne.

"My lord, the rebels have managed to take Baron!" Golbez raged, electricity crackling between his fingers again. "How did this happen? The resistance was as good as dead."

"They received backup." Mateus stated simply. "They received backup, and our forces were too far stretched out to come to Baron's aid in time."

"What should we do, my lord?" the mage asked, kneeling before the sorcerous ruler.

"Nothing." Mateus replied, his tone nonchalant. "We let them think they have won this battle, for now. This victory will make them overconfident, and we will crush them soon afterward. Let them have this moment of hope. That will make it all the more sweet when we crush it beneath our boots. Isn't that right, Golbez?"

Golbez was struck into silence by his master's calm demeanor. He didn't seem even slightly concerned that their main base of operations on the Blue Planet was captured, and that the outliers were surrendering left and right.

The smirk on the emperor's face grew wider. "Kefka's forces march on the Feymarch on Gestahl's behalf. He has his orders. And soon enough, the rebellion's linchpins will come to us. Isn't that right, my pet?"

At this last question, he turned to face the chained princess sitting to his left, stroking her chin gently. She moved as if to bite his fingers off, only to end up biting her own tongue as Mateus drew his hand away from her. Though she was clearly in pain, she kept her sapphire eyes narrowed at him in a defiant glare. The princess chained to the right of his throne shook her chains as she struggled to break free, glowering at her captor.

"Your struggling is pointless. With your hands bound, there is nothing either of you can do. No weapons you can properly wield to escape. Whether or not you leave this place is dependant on the rebels themselves."

And Mateus laughed as the women at either side of him tried in vain to destroy the chains binding them to him.

.-.-.-.

"Firion! Your Majesties!" a rebel soldier called, running into the room, short of breath.

"What is it?" Firion, Cecil, and King Mickey asked in unison, varying degrees of alarm and concern on all or their faces.

"We've just received word that Gestahl's forces have devastated the Feymarch, sir. The summoners have been slaughtered wholesale, and the Eidolons captured." the soldier reported.

"What?" Cecil asked, shaking with righteous anger. "How dare they? How dare the Empire tread their heels in such a holy land? They have no right to such desecration!"

"They give themselves the right to desecrate the land." Sora muttered wryly, rolling his good eye. "As if they care."

"However-" the soldier cut in, "we did manage to capture the leader of their forces. General Kefka of the Gestahlian Empire. One of the newer recruits is interrogating him right now."

"Which one?" Firion asked, eyes flaring.

"Valentine." the soldier answered.

And Sora finally lost his grip on his temper. Ignoring the flaring pain in his ribs, he got up from the bed, and began rushing through the labyrinthine halls of Castle Altair to find the gunman and kill him himself.

.-.-.-.

Vincent had never cared much for dealing with clowns. And the garishly dressed jester calling himself a general before him was no exception. Even though he was deep in the depths of enemy territory, staring down someone more demon than man, Kefka just kept on smiling. Crimson eyes narrowed, and a gauntleted hand smacked the back of Kefka's head so hard it made his forehead hit the table in front of him.

"Owww!" Kefka whined, rubbing his head with chained hands. "Geez, didn't anyone ever tell you not to start with the head? I'll get all fuzzy and unhelpful!"

The head slammed the table again. Kefka looked up at Vincent, grinning cheekily. "See? I'm seeing two of you!"

"What does Gestahl want with the Eidolons?" Vincent growled, glaring at Kefka.

The permanent grin grew wider. "You really wanna know? In that case... I'M NOT TELLING!"

The gunman's claw arm shot out and grabbed the jester by the throat.

"Owowowowow! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, lemme go!" Kefka begged, causing Vincent to throw him to the ground.

Kefka clambered to his feet, staggering around. "And I suggest you be a little nicer to me if you want any sort of chance to save them."

"...Them?" Vincent asked, utterly confused. "Who's-?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, your rebel princess is in another castle." the clown sneered. "And isn't it odd that you never found little precious pure heart's body in Baron?"

_Kairi's alive? Captured with Hilda?_ Vincent thought, rage beginning to permeate his body.

"Where are they?" he asked, his voice just a whisper.

"Ehhhhh?" Kefka asked, holding a hand to his ear. "What's that? I can't translate mumble!"

Vincent shoved Kefka against the wall, and pinned him there by the throat, screaming in his face. "WHERE ARE THEY?"

The raven-haired man heard the door swing open behind him, and vaguely recognized Firion's voice calling out for him to stop.

"STAY OUT OF THIS!" he shouted over his shoulder, slamming Kefka's head against the wall. "WHERE! ARE! THEY?"

"C-calm down, calm down. They're both in the same _place_, as I'm sure your intelligence network can tell you." Kefka wheezed. "But that doesn't mean it'll be easy to find them. Or that I'll tell you where they are."

Vincent growled deep in his chest, a red aura beginning to form around him.

"Oooooh, yeeeesss. Now we see your real self. Yes, that's it, more! MORE!" Kefka responded, sounding creepily aroused.

A calming hand on his shoulder. Vincent's left arm snapped back unconsciously for the source, sending the rebellion's leader flying against the wall with a loud _crack_. That was the cue for about ten members of the rebellion, including Cecil, Sora, and Mickey, to charge into the room and try everything in their power to hold Vincent back. Working together, they managed to subdue him. And all the while, Kefka was laughing uproariously.

"You really wanna know where Kairi and Hilda are?" Kefka taunted as Vincent was dragged out of the room. "Here's a hint: You'll have to fight to win what you're looking for."

And the last maniacal laugh echoed down the corridors of the rebel base long after the door to the interrogation room was shut and locked.

.-.-.-.

Next chapter, we begin a new arc of this story. I hope you all stay tuned.


End file.
